


Demons From my Past

by Danaeka



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Childhood Trauma, Eventual Romance, F/M, Five is an adult, Fluff, Good Leonard Peabody, Klaus Hargreeves and Vanya Hargreeves are Twins, Leonard Peabody is a good friend, No incest if you understand Fiveya, Police Vanya Hargreeves, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Slow Burn, Trauma, Vanya has a service dog, mentions of self harn, no powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:22:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danaeka/pseuds/Danaeka
Summary: "I was bullied a lot as a kid as you know, and I have proof of my war, scars… I know my way around things… I decided to use my suffering as impulse. Same as you Leonard… But your dad is in jail. You see him there and feel as if justice was made. I don't get that because my aggressors were too young to actually be held accountable even by their parents. I chose to be a cop so I could keep these types of kids grown into adults at bay…" Vanya took a deep breath. "remember the Miller Case?""Yeah… The poor girl that was ripped apart for the drugs in her stomach when she couldn't puke then out?""Yes. Her. Well… They finally found a match for the six stray DNA's on scene.""Who are they?""Demons from my past."
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Luther Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves, Vanya Hargreeves & Everyone, Vanya Hargreeves & Leonard Peabody
Comments: 49
Kudos: 115





	1. Accused

_"She looks a lot like you when you were a baby."_

_Vanya smiled while looking at her daughter. She'd never seen Reginald smile so bright before. Fluffer was at the cot's feet, resting while still guarding Vanya. Leonard was asleep on a chair outside, probably already half dead due to the air conditioner in the room._

_"She has her father's eyes though"_

_Vanya's father nodded while he rocked the baby girl in his arms. The new mother allowed her eyes to close for a few seconds, all the while her brain recalled all the shit that got her here. To this moment._

* * *

"You okay there boss?" Leonard asked while following Vanya to the vehicle. Grabbing a few donuts and cans of soda from the shelf on his way for both of them. "You got a little bit green around the gills back there."

Leonard was a rank below Vanya, a Special Agent, he served in the army a few years back, retired due to an injury but returned to work as a law enforcer. He was offered a position as a Sergeant and he respectfully declined it, he wanted action and excitement, they assigned him a partner. Vanya. Everyone in the building called her boss, but lately it felt more of an endearment pet name than an actual title. (At least for some of them).

"Yes I'm good…" Was her response, voice threaded with nervousness. "I'm just… It's… I'll tell you in the car. Just come"

Leonard nodded while she called Fluffer over, grabbed the dog's vest from the back of the car and placed it on the animal's body.

Fluffer was Vanya's german shepherd, a police dog that was her partner (and his by extension) after she rescued her for getting killed off from the litter (Fluffer was the runt of her siblings, the smallest, weakest pup.) Even the mother had rejected her, of course the brown haired girl wasn't about to let the poor animal die just for rejection. So she adopted the small pup, nursed her to strength and then trained her as a K-9 unit dog. That was supposed to be the end of it, until Fluffer wouldn't work with anyone other than Vanya, both of them needed each other. So they stayed as that, a team (With a begrudging Leonard.)

After Fluffer was tucked in the backseat and both officers were secure in the front. The trip started.

"So what's this about Vanya?"

"So you know how you became a cop because of your dad? To help kids in abusive households?" Vanya probed.

"Yes, but what does this have to do wi-" Leonard was interrupted.

"I was bullied a lot as a kid as you know, and I have proof of my war, scars… I know my way around things… I decided to use my suffering as impulse. Same as you Leonard… But your dad is in jail. You see him there and feel as if justice was made. I don't get that because my aggressors were too young to actually be held accountable even by their parents. I chose to be a cop so I could keep these types of kids grown into adults at bay…" Vanya took a deep breath. "remember the Miller Case?"

"Yeah… The poor girl that was ripped apart for the drugs in her stomach when she couldn't puke then out?"

"Yes. Her. Well… They finally found a match for the six stray DNA's on scene."

"Who are they?"

"Demons from my past."

The rest of the trip was silent. Just accompanied by the soft yip or grunt from Fluffer in the back seat. Both of them enjoyed the silence. It was always nice.

* * *

"This is… A big house" Leonard whispered while he looked up said mansion. It was an old one, big garden up front, round perimeter, a fence that resembled spears guarding roses behind it, and finally a big, castle looking place. With worn down walls that instead of making it look ugly it made it look intimidating. "...Doesn't look too… Welcoming"

Vanya preferred them modern anyways.

"Mansion from 1895, original owner in the family. More like a heirloom than an actual home." She replied while covering her bulletproof vest with her actual vest. Vanya had noticed something in the master few years she enforced law as a career, criminals shot police officers without a noticeable vest more often than police officers that used their vest plainly in view. This might not mean anything just like that but, in court, assaulting a police officer was a crime, and combined with the criminal charges previously presented it meant even more time in jail (and bruises for her, but hey, the joy of the job.)

Leonard called for reinforcement, being quite specific on them arriving silently. After he was done he opened the back door, letting dear Fluffer out, Vanya fixed her vest a bit before signaling both her companions to follow her.

The door was old but well preserved, a simple, hand door knock was her receiver, one she used to announce her presence along with the line of 'D.P.D! Open up!' After a few seconds of no response, Vanya knocked again. Repeat five times. Eventually she got bored and just knocked the door over while silently asking for forgiveness to the vintage gods.

The house was quiet, no signs of anyone actually being home in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. She knew better than that.

Leonard went left and she went right (Fluffer right besides her).

The hallways in this house were long and intricate looking, turned everywhere. If a persecution was to happen at the moment she'd definitely be left behind. Her canine friend was quiet, her claws softly clicking on the wooden floor, over years of being a K-9 unit officer (before her transfer) she learned to listen and look closely to her dog companion body language change, they were keen and trustworthy animals. So when Fluffer suddenly stopped and the medals on her collar clicked differently than the usual way they did after a normal halt she immediately reached for her gun.

The room was big from the outside view, probably the master bedroom. Vanya signaled for Fluffer to stay behind her, the dog's demeanor different from the usual giddiness at her home (or at Leonard's car).

"I wasn't expecting company today"

To say she got spooked would be an understatement, Vanya entered a room to find a man, back to her, hands in pockets and looking out the window.

"Whatever you have, it wasn't me."

"Quentin Shawrz you're under arrest for the murder or Bianca Miller." Honestly, she recited it from memory, not even bothering to check if she said it wrong.

"Never heard of the lady" the man scoffed.

"Heard of her or not, you're coming wi-" her words choked on her throat when out of this air a fist collided with her chest and then another with her face on her right eye.

Recently never one to let others walk over her, she grabbed his arms, placing one in front of his arm and the other one behind it on his forearm region, this caused him to flip slightly with a crack in the joint, he was stunned for a few seconds so she pushed him to the ground, placed her left knee on his upper back and Right knee on top of his left arm, keeping him in place while she cuffed him.

"You're also under arrest for aggression against a police officer." Vanya looked around the place while sighing "and whatever other charges I may find."

In the whole struggle, she forgot about Quentin, who apparently tried to escape through the bedroom door when this idiot hit her but was stopped by Fluffer and her constant growling bared teeth at him. He lifted his hands at her, the dog just growled louder and louder as the time went on. Eventually he caught on and just stayed still.

"Good girl Fluffer" she smiled at her puppy, looking back up she scoffed. "I can add his charges to yours." She warned.

"So behave."

* * *

Leonard's shoes were heavy ones, mainly because of a physical problem, but also because of a few criminals that tried to get away with stomping down on his foot and then bolting it down the street, mainly female criminals (other than the weekly slap he got).

That was the case with this woman. Only thing… She didn't run… She closed the door on his face…

A door in a room…

...That had no back exit…

_The nerve of some people._

"D.P.D, open up and surrender yourself". He huffed while knocking on the door a few times.

After no response, as he was about to knock again, he heard a noise from inside that sounded as if it came from outside the room…

It had to have a window…

_The nerve of him._

Kicking the door open he saw the scene and wanted to quit life. Funny from the naked eye of an outsider, but he was on duty… he couldn't laugh. Trying to remember his training, his years in the army, some gruesome details, anything about the bodies at the morgue would do to keep his laugh inside. Eventually he just pumped out a giggle.

There was a pregnant lady trying to get out a window, when a tall man was on the other side with his arms up to help her… And a lanky looking guy in the room lifting her from the butt, they all had a 'deer on headlights' look.

"Alright cut it up" he called, sighing and pulling out his gun. "We can do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way. Get down before you hurt yourself and come to the station, if you've got nothing to hide you'll be released in no time. But this right here it's not looking good for you all."

The trio looked at each other and nodded, the lanky guy lowered the woman, she sat down on the bed, and the tall guy (tall, buff looking guy) entered through the window again. "Alright. Boss got two up, there's three here… Where's the last-

Before he could finish someone smacked with a book (quite the heavy book since it managed to stun him for a bit) before the four of them ran through the hallway. Heading for the front door.

Just as he was getting ready to inform the police officers outside… He heard a few grunts from the same hallway, followed by a new voice he never heard of saying 'idiots'.

"Really Leonard?" Vanya rolled her eyes while pointing with her gun towards the now wide eyed group.

"I'm sorry, he stunned me!" He tried to defend pointing to a new asian looking guy and all the while lifting said book up to his face, skimming through. He ended up reading through a few pages, it was quite investing.

"What is it?" He heard her ask while she pulked yet another pair of handcuffs from her belt, placing them on the book aggressor's wrists. When she received no response she turned toward him “Leonard?”

"A thesis… Quite the extensive one" he kept reading it. “I’m gonna confiscate it.”

"It's a shame all that work will be wasted." Vanya joked. “only you will read it.”

"a shame really"

* * *

Fluffer growled at the officer who now has her leash. She kept on trying to pull away and get to Vanya's side, eventually the cop placed the leash on a fence edge and left to attend some business. This left the dog alone to her own devices and schemes.

She sat still a few seconds, waiting to see if Vanya or at least Leonard would come over and free her without having to intervene herself. After no soul made an appearance she decided to just follow her heart, placing her nose below the leash edge and slowly pushing it upwards till it was off the edge and she was free to go. Fluffer trotted through the street till she found Vanya sitting on a porch, hands on her face while breathing heavily…

She immediately got into service dog mode, pushed Vanya down with her nose and laid completely on her chest, her weight giving a comforting pressure that was quick to calm her down.

"Hey there puppy…" Of course Fluffer didn't answer, yet she did sniff in her direction. Vanya smiled happily. "You always find me, I'm so glad you're this smart. I love you pupper"

Fluffer wagged her tail but kept her position on top of Vanya.

"I'm sorry I left you with officer Carl… I just needed some alone time, I'm glad you were able to get away though. I was almost having a panic attack." Vanya took a deep breath. "I need to go back. And yet I don't want to face them all…"

Fluffer yipped softly.

"You're right. I need to face my past. Just this one last time."

Vanya tried getting up but to no avail. The needed time was not over yet, and Fluffer was making sure her owner adhered to said time.

Eventually one of the rockies found them and called Vanya over. The Senior agent was needed.

She'd deal with her demons later.

* * *

"... Wait… " Leonard counted the suspects sitting in front of him. "Isn't she a famous actress?" The question was asked just in time for Vanya to make her appearance, dog in tow.

"Yes. Leonard let me present you our suspects. First we have Luther Smith, golden boy of the Dallas State High, famous American football player, his last game was in 2009, he broke his knee and was forced to retire. He used to train the team. He was charged with abuse of minors and negligence. License revoked." Vanya pointed at said man, who did indeed look like a golden boy, blonde hair, clear eyes, strong. Your standard, american guy.

"You have next Diego Espinoza, tried to go into the police academy but failed, became a bounty hunter instead for a while, got one of our officers killed." the man in question was about to object until she placed a hand in her gun, he quieted down after that. "Went out with Eudora. Remember her?" Now she turned to him.

"How could I not? She was our mentor."

"Well, she died because of him, charges were never pressed for lack of evidence. Though in the last few months he's gotten many extra charges such as assault and trespassing, new evidence on Eudora's case too." Vanya cleared her throat and continued.

"Meet Allison Abara, an A-listed actress. A few years ago she married Luther and now she's pregnant apparently, oh lord the court's gonna have a blast with this" something about her little laugh threw Leonard off, something was wrong. "Last year one of her movies got dirt on her and she was fired, from what I know she's been trying to live a normal wife life while cleaning her name..."

"Klaus…" Vanya hesitated a bit "Klaus Hargreaves" Leonard went to speak at this point again but Vanya shut him off. "Son of Reginald Hargreeves, found guilty for multiple charges of drug abuse and distribution who, against all what his father stood for, he learned nothing apparently since he keeps getting caught. Last time I checked he was in Los Angeles. Wonder when he got here…"

The guy was indeed lanky looking, yet his gaze was fixated on Vanya in a longing manner.

Leonard could definitely guess why.

"Then we have Quentin Shawrz, a few years back he took over his mother's company, it was one of the lead competitors of the Hargreeves Industries, lately though it kind of became stalled. I wonder why." Fluffer growled at him. "Quentin is a big gambler, many casinos have banned him, he owes money to a few big guys. But who cares about that? He was also a known mathematician with his license revoked too… He's an outcast now." The guy was surprisingly quiet throughout the whole explanation.

"And lastly we have Ben Park, he is, was… he was a pediatrician at the local hospital, he helped find a new, less invasive treatment for kids with cancer and was hoping to expand it to adults too… But his license was revoked a few months back. From what I heard he's trying to clean his name, but no avail"

Leonard nodded while turning to the side, confused to no limit, they were all from different lives, different back stories, how in the world did Vanya know them all? He had a feeling this was something that had to do with her scars. Before he could say anything though, new officers arrived and as he lifted his hand to greet the officers the subject was dropped.

"Who are you? How'd you know so much of us?" Ben asked a but dumb folded. Apparently with as many questions as Leonard.

She didn't answer.

"Agent Hargreeves." Someone called behind her, she immediately turned and nodded towards the owner of the voice. “I see you and your partners caught them. I hope I won't have to pay because your mutt bit another of my suspects”

Fluffer growled.

“No ma’am, she just helped catc-” she started until all the voices behind her interrupted, repeating her last name as if the world depended on them doing it.

“Hargreeves? As in the daughter of Reginald Hargreeves?” the black pregnant lady asked a bit too loud.

“... Vanya?...” Klaus whispered, finally looking up at her.

“Wait… Va-Vanya?” Quentin stuttered.

“That’s Agent Vanya Hargreeves for you all." She turned to one of the officers that was indeed wearing a uniform. "Take them to the station. I have some questions"

* * *

"... So that's the…"

"This is a liver with liver failure buddy. Gross looking if you ask me. But if he didn't die from the bullet, he'd die from the liver failure" Helen smiled while placing said body part on the steel pan to her side. "So… what are you having for dinner?"

"... I was having meat… Now I might as well skip it." Leonard said, holding his handkerchief to his nose and mouth.

"I bought a salad. It's quite big. We could share" Helen winked at him.

While he could very well pursue the many flirty gestures Helen had been directing at him over the last year and a half she'd been transferred… Leonard could see how she was going through a dead man's organs… Could see said death man's ribs and as he was about to answer the body blinked.

His body hit the floor before he had a chance to get up from the chair.

"... Leonard?" The Asian women looked over from her place.

Vanya walked through the door, Fluffer at her side (she sniffed at Leonard and sneezed in his face, the sweet puppy), the Senior Agent stopped beside her companion's body while moving it slightly with her boot, shaking her head and laughing a dry giggle.

"What was it this time?"

"Dude's been dead less than ten hours. He blinked and that scared Leonard." Helen explained while examining said man's left lung. "... He also smoked… Buddy you should've been dead ten years ago! Why were you still alive?"

Vanya didn't know if all forensic doctors had that kind of dark humor, she'd walk in many times on Helen talking to a corpse, making jokes on said individual's death, or actively bullying a body to have the doubt embedded in her soul.

Sissy was the same before she moved away. What's with that?

Helen finally looked up from the body, noticing her forming eye bruise. She wasn't amused. "Nice black eye. Though it was the left one's turn though."

"What can I say, right eye is an attention whore."

"You should be careful though, you've had six bruises there in the last three months. A few more and you may go blind Boss." Helen smiled softly.

"I know Helen. I'll be careful" both of them smiled. "You still have Bianca's body here?"

"Yes, actually it's going away this afternoon, if you want me to check her again tell me now because I'll need to redo the stitches if that's the case." Helen pointed behind her towards the mortuary coolers.

"No no, I just wanted to make sure it matched the reports here" she looked at her tablet.

"No, it won't match, she was supposed to be taken yesterday and no one came. So if she's not taken in three days well… I'll have a new body for the university I studied in."

"... That's… Dark"

"No, that's science and learning"

"Dark" Vanya deadpanned to later sit down on a stool, reaching to grab one of the many books Helen kept on the morgue. She moved a few of them to find a very worn out copy of a limited edition 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Vanya laughed half amused, half jealous and half sarcastic (fuck mathematics).

"... Really? You bring porn to work?"

"Shut it Hargreaves, I never criticize you and your tastes in literature." Helen pointed at her with a scalpel, causing said thing to spill some blood droplets, said drops landing on her shirt… On her white dress shirt "I'm so sorry Vanya!" Dropping the sharp instrument she raised her hands to her face, smeering a bit of blood on her cheeks.

She suddenly understood Leonard's dead body pose...

"...really Helen?"

"I'm sorry! Here!" Helen handed her sweater she'd brought if the weather got bad in the late afternoon. "I'll wash the shirt! Just leave it there and go change in the bathroom." Vanya rolled her eyes and took off her shirt right there. Many of her companions knew very well how many scars she had, she'd been attacked quite the handle of occasions and her collection kept growing by the minute.

"I'll go interrogate someone now, I'll bring you the sweater when my shirt's dry" Vanya replied, placing the black and white panda hoodie on.

Helen was weird.

* * *

"Let's retrace the steps okay?" Vanya said while she entered the interrogation room.

"Nice eye and sweater" Quentin scoffed looking at her.

Vanya paid no mind and sat down, opened a folder with pictures of the crime scene to finally turn it towards him. The man looked pale and sick instantly. "Bianca Miller was the reporter who ruined your career and life. She wrote an article on each and everyone of you six, exposing your lies and cons. You all got mad, so you decided to take revenge. You lured her out and tortured the sweet sweet girl until she pleaded dea-

"You're wrong!" Quentin whispered-screamed, hands shaking and voice trembly. Not used to seeing gruesome pictures apparently "You got it all wrong!"

Vanya could very well get fired if her boss was to find out how much she was enjoying seeing this man so shaken up by a few pictures of the autopsy, he hadn't even seen the crime scene photos.

"Oh, I do? Then please enlighten me. Because our forensic would love to know the details." Vanya closed the folder taking it back. "Because this is all looking very bad for you all."

"I-I… Yes we all look very bad here. But I don't know! We're innocent!"

"If I had a dollar, no, a penny for every time I've heard that I'd be a millionaire. Cut the crap and save us both some time. Confess." She handed him a notebook and a pen to write in it.

"I'm not confessing anything I haven't done!"

"Oh really? Then give me an alibi."

Quentin seemed to think a bit, Vanya kept her face straight and tapped her fingers on the table.

"I was with Delores! My fia-ex… Ex fiance! You can check with her! December 21st!" He seemed so sure. Yet Vanya just looked down and shook her head while snickering in a sarcastic manner. "What are you laughing about?!"

"I never told you when she died. You just dug your own grave." As Vanya turned to leave he also stood up, slamming his hands on the table.

"What?! Because you couldn't kill yourself back then you know want to get us all killed?! You bitch!"

Even if she wanted to stop and smack him, she couldn't… She still kept her posture while turning around and, still smiling sarcastically, puffed out. "I'm glad I failed. That way whenever I go check up on the federal prison and see your cell I'll laugh so loud… So loud Quentin… You'll wish you were dead instead."

With that left…

Vanya needed something sharp.

* * *

Fluffer knew something was wrong, her owner had entered the bathroom since they got to the mansion and hadn't come out of it. She kept pacing and scratching the door to no avail. Vanya wasn't opening up. Apart from being a police dog, Fluffer was a service dog, (primarily that's what she was, she just trained side by side to be a k-9 too) she knew when her human was in danger, even if said danger was herself.

Fluffer barked to her heart's content, getting increasingly louder and louder until finally an old man in his late fifties got close, knocked on the door a few times… To end up opening it a few seconds later when no response was heard.

He didn't utter a word, just got close, scooped the girl in his arms and carried her to her room, arms gripping blood as both of them left. Fluffer whined at the floor before following the humans.

What was wrong with her owner?


	2. Presumed Innocent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! this is chapter 2! We're starting to get a bit more information on Vanya's past and why she's so bitter towards everyone else.

"Vanya, I thought you got over this" her father's voice held no malice, no disappointment, no anger or tease, it was just a hidden sadness. Like he was mad at himself.

"... I know… I… I'm sorry dad" she whispered looking at her arms.

"Why?" was his answer.

"... There's this new case, dad. Where the suspects are my old bullies. All six of them." He nodded at her direction, urging her to continue. "And… I guess seeing them. How much success they had, and how quickly they lost it, It made me happy...so so happy to see them so sad… And then one of them told me… That since I couldn't kill myself, I wanted to kill them."

"And is that true?" Reginald sat besides her.

"No, I just want to do my job."

"Then why did it affect you so much honey?" He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers.

"Because… Because, Dad… I think they deserve it, I crave seeing them on their cells. Behind bars." Vanya bowed her head, clearly ashamed.

"That's a normal human emotion, you want revenge, want them to feel what you felt back then." His voice was raspy and worn out, yet he still held that fatherly vibe she longed those years he was away. "I remember your recovery, how hard it was for you to breathe properly again, and how that injury still affects you today." His hand moved to her neck, brushed her hair and moved her shirt a bit, making the dark shadow and marks on her neck noticeable.

When Vanya was seventeen she tried to kill herself, grabbed a wire to hang herself from her bedroom floor, the wire cut through her skin and caused serious damage to some of her vocal cords, of course her father wasn't letting her quit life so easily, so he paid many procedures to fix her as best as possible. Said procedures left nasty scars on her neck, scars she hid with her button ups, scarfs and jackets...

"Vanya, when the maid screamed for me that day I was scared, and this comes from someone who led a drug cartel, I knew no fear, then you tried to end your life and suddenly I was punched in the face with reality." He kissed her forehead. "Please, promise me you'll look for help if this gets worse."

"... I promise dad"

* * *

"Agent Hargreeves, Agent Peabody, Fluffer" The person in charge of the prison (the warden) smiled and nodded "so nice to see you! What brings you here? Other than the monthly checkup?"

"Apart from that, we sent a few new prisoners yesterday" Leonard placed his hands in his pocket.

"Oh yes! The pregnant lady and the five guys. The pregnant lady is on the maternity floor, as you requested Agent Hargreeves, then there's the guys in cells as far from each other as they can be." Warden Hazel (obviously a nickname) smiled and led them to the first door.

Hargreeves showed her plaque and they were allowed entry without much more questioning. The sight they were first greeted with was the courtyard, where most prisoners would go to play, train and just relax a bit of their 15 square feet of space for most of the day. They actually found Luther and Diego lifting weights. Fluffer looked a bit confused at the constant noise but once Vanya rubbed her ear she calmed down enough to go back onto police dog mode.

"I see you two got comfortable already…" She addressed the pair.

Diego outright ignored her.

"I mean… We can do this" Luther gestured towards the court and the ball. "Or we can be in our cells sulking about how unfair this is… I prefer to let time take its course."

"... You killed a woman in cold blood…" Leonard informed again, looking quite confused in a sarcastic way "How's this unfair? You're where you're supposed to be"

"We're innocent." Luther said simply.

"Evidence says otherwise" Vanya nodded at them. "Have a nice day"

Next there was the first building, a big, three story building, it held the cafeteria in the middle, with stainless steel tables and chairs, there were cells on either side, some of the prisoners were sleeping so they were quiet most of the way through. The group arrived at the second floor where the third intern was.

Ben Park was sitting on his bed with a book on his lap, going through pages and highlighting certain parts with his index finger. Vanya stood at the front and knocked the bars with a coin. His gaze turned towards the door and his eyes widened. She opened the door, let Fluffer in, she sniffed around a bit and then came out sitting besides Vanya.

"I want to believe you do this for… Every prisoner" he tried to start a joke.

"I do actually, but once a month, I want to see if they got seated correctly." Vanya ignored his 'funny' statement, glanced at the cell seemingly pleased. "Yes… It looks nice."

"As nice as a cell can be" Ben mumbled.

"Better than the grave dear Bianca has." Since when was Vanya so blunt? She had grown a spine in the last decade.

"We did not kill her" Ben was stammering and flailing his hands up and down. "We're not killers!"

"That's what they all say, anyway, I see you got seated in. Nice day" she began walking away when he screamed after her.

"I'm sorry okay!! I'm sorry! I really liked you!" The outburst seemed to scare Fluffer, who preferred the calm of the office against the loudness of the prison or the street, she was already at edge inside here and so she turned around and barked at him.

Vanya ignored his little show and kept walking towards the other side. They stopped at a table where there was a guy painting his nails as best as he could, he had somehow gotten nail polish inside the prison. She just rolled her eyes and grabbed the bottle. Showing it to Fluffer (who sneezed and then rubbed her nose with her paw).

"Klaus Hargreeves" she started.

He turned around, taking in her appearance for a few seconds, eyes stubbornly focused on her black eye. He stood up and walked to her, reached and tried to touch that patch of skin that she of course didn't let him do. Vanya leaned away and cleared her throat slightly, causing Klaus to sigh and keep his arms to himself.

"I see you've gotten comfortable." She said. "That's always good"

"Not my first rodeo." He tried to joke and make her laugh. 'But my first one not being at fault.'

She didn't laugh.

"That's not good. Anyway, I'm pleased to see you're okay, I'm gonna go check on the others now" Vanya turned only for the man to grab her wrist to hold her still, trying to keep her talking to him.

Her companions of course didn't like this, touching a police officer as a prisoner wasn't acceptable. It was seen as an aggression towards the agent. If this was indeed 'not his first rodeo' he would've known that. With Fluffer all fluffed up, growling and barking at the man (was it not for the muzzle she would've already bit him) Leonard grabbed Klaus by the wrist making his arm go behind his back, grabbed the other one with his left hand and placed it in the same position, holding both with his right hand he used his remaining arm to push him against the table chest to steel, separating his legs with his foot.

Klaus's face was facing Vanya, eyes locked with her.

She didn't move a muscle to stop Leonard.

'Karma's a bitch' was the only thing Klaus was able to think before his dear sister sat on the table, closer to him.

"You know how I was at the bottom of the food chain back in highschool, and how you would watch and do nothing?" He meekly nodded. "Now's the other way around, Klaus. What did you compare me to? A scared bunny fleeing from a pack of wolves?" Vanya leaned down, next to his ear and whispered, "now I’m alpha here.”

With that Leonard let him go and Vanya stood up “Good afternoon brother." They left.

The warden guided them to the other cell, the guy refused to go out of it, hadn’t even touched his dinner the night before. Vanya asked for the cell to be unlocked and to be left alone with this one, Fluffer started sniffing immediately, Leonard and Hazel nodded but they stayed close, she knew they did.

Quentin kept his back to her, he was sitting crossed legged, facing the wall with his arms crossed and another book in his lap. She cleared her throat once more and he jumped a bit.

“It’s always hard to see someone ‘dear to you’ in prison” Vanya smirked “I’m glad I never liked any of you all.”

“This is the exact definition of abuse of power you know?” Quentin said, voice still not as sassy and prepotent as before.

“No it's not" she walked around the cell, noting the book he had, the desk and the papers, the thin sheets and pillows, all was looking good. "I'm just checking to see if you got settled correctly"

"That's… Do you do this for every inmate?"

"Once a month. It just happened to be the first today. Happy new year by the way"

He let out a dry laugh and closed his book, turning to look at her face now. "... Nice black eye. Abusive husband? Is that why you're taking your anger out on us?"

"Actually no, this was courtesy of your friend Diego, he's in the basketball field by the way. If you wanted to know." She headed towards the edge of the cell, lifting her hand towards the fence to open it, leaving a short glance to her bandaged wrist, Five could've sworn he saw that, but she also wore a white shirt…

It was hard to tell.

Next stop was Allison. Unlike the guy's cells, she had one to her own devices, she was indeed told to paint it accordingly to a baby, since she was going to be giving birth in prison, her baby was gonna be raised a part of its life there. She seemed content enough with the paint and brush. Vanya almost wanted to step back, almost.

Fluffer immediately went over and sniffed the room, of course that was the main reason she was there, she wasn't a drug detection dog, like many labs and goldens, but she was trained a bit, meaning she was able to sniff out certain objects with a stronger, more noticeable smell, like drugs or gunpowder, to which when she found none she returned to Vanya's side.

To say Fluffer had spooked Allison was not a lie.

"I apologize for the scare my dog gave you, I came to check how you were getting seate-" Immediately Allison stood up (Vanya wasn't sure how she was able to do so with that stomach) and slapped her, hard. A few seconds later she seemed to realize her mistake and covered her mouth with both hands.

Vanya held a hand to Leonard who had started to approach in a quick fashion. Her check has a slight cut from Allison's acrylic nails (she'll have to talk to the Warden about getting rid of those).

"I see you're fine" she simply said, wiping a blood droplet from her cheek.

"Vanya-" Allison started but the other woman cut her off.

"Agent Hargreeves" she mumbled. "I'm not Vanya, I'm not Number Seven… I'm Agent Hargreeves to you all. And I hope you understand that what you just did counts as another crime…" She explained.

Allison paled.

"Van-Agent Hargreeves I'm sorry! It's just… We're innocent! You have to believe us!"

"Look" Leonard started "I've worked for three years less than her in this field. And if I had a penny for every time I've heard that, I'd be in Malibu in a mansion I don't own but with the amount of times I've heard that I'd be able to buy three of those"

"Funny, I said something similar to that to Quentin yesterday" Vanya joked and they both turned around.

Allison stayed behind.

Because now she wasn't even allowed out of her cell without permission…

… Was this how Vanya felt back then?...

* * *

"Let's make a small bet," Leonard said while grabbing Fluffer's muzzle from Vanya's hand.

"... Sure" she responded, grabbing back her metal belongings from the tray.

"I bet you're about to stop a fight of inmates."

"... What do you win?"

"A day off…" he half joked "No honestly I need it."

"Okay fine, if I so happen to stop a fight between prisoners in the minute it takes to cross this damn hallway so be it. I'll give you a week off."

Leonard seemed happy enough.

After he collected his belongings they both stepped through the wire walled hallway that led to the free world. Almost completely thought… When a scream followed by a punch and a fall was heard behind them.

They both turned to encounter at the basketball court Quentin standing over a fallen Diego, screaming to him, while the other man held his nose in disbelief.

The second Vanya saw that go down, she went into cop mode, jumping the fence that protected them and running over to the court, climbing that fence too, landed in front of them and pinned Quentin to the wall.

She felt powerful that day.

"Stop it!" She said.

"You're not sta-" Quentin tried to argue, but she kept her stare fixed. Eventually he backed down.

"What happened?" She asked again.

"He hit you. That's what happened"

"You were there when it went down! What difference does it make now?!" Diego screamed, getting up with Luther’s help all the while he was still clutching his nose.

"I was backwards! I thought she wrestled with you!" Quentin explained. "Not that you punched her, Diego! What the actual fuck!"

"We didn't kill that woman! We're here because of her!"

"No! We were framed! And you don't go around hitting her! Everyone else but her!"

"You bullied her too! What's so-"

Vanya heard enough. Since Quentin was the aggressor she cuffed him and turned him over to the officer. Before she left however. He screamed something… She'd tried to forget it.

* * *

"Hey Vanya!" Sissy greeted as she hugged her close and later tried to pet Fluffer, who growled at her.

The dog had never taken a liking to Sissy, she would sit in front of Vanya whenever she was close, bark, growl and even push the woman away if she was inside whatever she had deemed an acceptable distance. Yet they both wrote it off as the dog being jealous, Leonard had it quite similar after all.

"Hey Sissy! How have you been?" Both of them entered the cafeteria. The dog immediately laying down at Vanya's chair feet.

"It's all been great, yesterday Carl tried to paint the bathroom, he got paint all over the floor."

Both of them laughed and started talking about the old times. Sissy had been a forensic doctor at the station for over fifteen years, she had met Carl there, he subsequently married him and now they lived together with a son Vanya loved as her own. She barely saw him these days though…

Sissy had been a big stepping stone on Vanya's way to the top, she'd help the girl on bad nights, take her out, feed her, she even got her to open up about her past, something not even Leonard had been able to do. Vanya had taken a big liking towards her, suddenly Sissy received a promotion but, she had to move to another city.

They broke apart but kept in touch, this was the first time they met in person other than through calls. They were used to girl dates, going out to the movies, eating together, gossiping at the station, making fun at Leonard for fainting over a corpse.

She felt like a mom, she would make sure she ate, slept and bathed. She was quick to notice how much Vanya untended herself when a case was neigh, when a case was at its peak Sissy would slap files out of Vanya's hands and force her to take a breath out of those damn papers, sure Vanya had climbed the ladder to success alone, but the steps were sharp knives, sharp knives with a flat back.

Sissy turned the ladder for her and cleaned her wounds.

Vanya was forever thankful for that.

"Damn that's harsh Vanny, I'm sorry to hear so" Sissy smiled apologetically and drank a gulp from her coffee. "I can't imagine having to deal with that."

"It's okay… Is it bad to say I'm glad to see them there?" Vanya asked softly.

"No it's not Vanya… They hurt you and in a way you're finally finding closure through this." Sissy rubbed her thumb over Vanya's hand and she nodded.

"But I mean… Allison's pregnant" she whispered.

"That doesn't change the fact she helped kill someone does it? If that was the case. No woman that's a mother would be in prison" she smiled.

"Yeah you're right." Vanya returned the smile.

"Now about that black eye of yours" Sissy took yet another sip from her cup and eyed the woman in front of her playfully.

"Sissy!"

* * *

Quentin sighed and rubbed his wrists, his hands later found their way to his face and covered it. Vanya had bandaged wrists… He didn't want to stereotype, but she tried to kill herself before, the wire she used back then was so thin she cut through skin…

Vanya was really damaged, not only physically, mentally too, she was going to relapse every time she saw them if his minor in psychology was anything to go by.

"Hey there." His cellmate called as he entered the cell. Five rolled his eyes. He couldn't tolerate this idiot. "Still not talkative I see, you'll get over that. Trust me."

Quentin stayed quiet.

"I saw Agent Hargreeves stopped your fight" that peaked his interest. "The bitch's a bitch… But she's a nice cop, unlike many others who visit, she actually listens if you talk to her."

"... Why do you say so?"

"Oh you talk!" The man laughed softly but kept on speaking. "Agent Hargreeves is a smart one, she treats you as a human no matter how much damage you've done. I uh… I owe her lot"

"... Money?" He whispered.

"No, no no. She saved me. You see, I saw a murder in another prison, a fight between inmates gone wrong… I got scared and would not leave my cell. Someone must've told the station because less than two weeks later she was with me and we talked and she got me out. I would be dead if it wasn't for her."

"Why is she a bitch then?"

"She's a cop, she arrested me man… And yet I can't hate her." He had a soft smile.

"... Everyone loves her apparently."

"I wouldn't say love. Many want her dead, inside here as well. That's why she has a militar partner."

"...wait, who wants her dead?"

"I can't tell."

The rest of the morning Five slept. Remembering back a small girl who would sit at the back, bang covered eyes and shaky voice. She was cute actually… But everyone seemed to sense her weakness. Everyone seemed to know she was an easy target. That she wouldn't snitch. She also had a brother, a twin to be exact, a twin whom… Had her opposite character, he was outgoing and fierce and charming.

He didn't even notice when the food chain was made and she was made the bunny, running from a pack of wolves who didn't want to eat her for the sole reason of tormenting her.

He woke up drenched in cold sweat.

* * *

"Helen I swear… if you called to show me another severed head…" Leonard warned.

"No no! I swear!" She laughed. "Look. I found this inside Bianca's stomach" she lifted a ring in a bag.

"... She swallowed a ring?"

"Yes! And it's a vintage wedding ring, I'm not sure yet what year it is, but it's old. Not that old… Still old"

"Old as in your violin or-"

"No not that old, like… My mothers birth year" Helen explained while washing her hands and drying them in a towel she had on her sink.

"... 1960's?" Leonard guessed.

"... Not that new… I should've rephrased that better, anyway. It's an old ring. I'd say it's kind of a family heirloom?"

"... Beginnings of the 1900's?" He guessed again.

"... Sure let's go with that." Helen rolled her eyes. "What I mean is, this is a wedding ring, so it must have a partner ring, and they're old rings, so it must not be hard to find the one that matches."

".... I still don't get it. Why would she swallow it?" Leonard sat on a stool and played with one of her books.

"So, they were probably struggling, she falls back and hits herself with the table. She knows she's gonna die, and in the fall she manages to take the ring off… So, to make sure she's found she swallows the ring to avoid it being taken away."

"That's… Actually quite smart" Leonard whispers. "But her stomach was ripped open, we found packages of drugs there. She was killed for the drugs."

"That's debatable. Look, she probably did deal drugs… But since she swallowed the ring, the killer decided to rip her stomach to find it, couldn't do it, and placed the drugs inside to cover it up. Moved the body and done"

"How'd you explain the six DNAs?"

"Planted"

"The amount of blood? If she was moved it wouldn't have that much blood."

"Remember I told you that I found it weird how much blood she was missing? Even if she bleed to death?" Leonard nodded. "Well, I found small puncture points. I wrote it off as heroin but, looking closely, those veins had absolutely no blood in them, meaning…" She left it in the air for him to piece it together.

"... Someone took her blood out and left it in the crime scene?"

"Yes! Exactly!" Helen clapped.

"... It's so stupid… It might actually be true." Leonard wanted to smack his head against the desk.

"It's not stupid! Think about it!" He tried, he certainly did, trying to picture someone taking the time to drain some blood, package it, transport it, move the body, create the exact splutter pattern for a crime as this one… And then clean the other scene spotless.

Helen usually wore quite elegant clothes, except when she was in the morgue, so at the moment it was hard for him to take her seriously as she dressed in joggers, a raccoon hoodie and her gown, her hair was also messy so…

She looked way to homey to be talking about a murder victim.

"... I'm trying to! But I can't connect the dots! The only ones who know how to clean a scene that well are the CSI's, which none had access to this case."

"Anyone that was fired in the last month?"

"No, no one has been fired."

"... This is a dead end."

Helen couldn't help but look at her side, grin at the corpse that had just gone through her third autopsy… And make a snarky remark.

"Oh you think?"

* * *

Vanya was sitting at her desk, she should've been reading reports and she would read them… If words made sense at the moment. Fluffer had her head against Vanya's lap, her weight was comforting and she found herself smiling and petting the dog. She was her life savoir and in a sense, Vanya was Fluffers.

"Hey there Boss." She looked up and smiled at the sight of Leonard, he carried two bags of lunch and a soda on each hand. "Time to eat?"

"I'd say so, yes" both of them smiled.

"And I got Fluffer a treat too, can she eat now?" Leonard was very thoughtful in that sense. Fluffer was a trained dog, but a dog nonetheless. While on duty Vanya kept her pets and treats to a minimum as to not associate work with home.

Leonard did too.

"Yes she can. Though she ate an hour earlier. Are you hungry baby girl?" A bark was their answer.

What he bought was actually on spot, Vanya had a very delicate stomach, she couldn't stand certain foods, red meat for example, she could eat vegetables, but not acid fruits, her diet was very tight. That afternoon she ate a salad that had corn, carrot, cucumber, avocado, shrimps, and chicken.

It was a treat.

Surprisingly enough she could drink almost anything. Except alcohol. Not because it damaged her health, but because she got drunk way too quickly.

"So about that vacation"

"Leonard!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karma's a bitch


	3. Innocent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like a connection... Uh .. Bridge? Unifies two points in something... You name it... chapter, that's why. It's about half the length of a normal one. I needed to move things along and just couldn't fit more here, but were almost at the peak, not any ending near in sight.

_"What do you… What"_

_It has started out as a normal day, Vanya walked inside the classroom, ignoring the many stares and whispers of others l behind her. She had already planned the day, she was sitting silently all eight hours, leaving in a rush to help Dad make plans and then practice her Violin for her upcoming concert, sleep and repeat._

_She had not however… Planned this._

_Right in front of her, Vanya saw a big poster, something that read along the lines of 'Not So Pure Now'... It even held a picture of her and another guy (her boyfriend Ben), In bed… Together._

_Mind you they hadn't even actually had sex, she got scared last minute and turned him down, he seemed pissed… But she didn't imagine he was this pissed. Diego wrapped an arm around Ben's shoulder while he ruffled his hair._

_"Let's see what your daddy thinks of you now, Vanya" Quentin mocked._

_Vanya just stared…_

_…_   
_.._   
_._   
_._

_._

_._

_…. 'Do something'…_

_… I ...I can't..._

* * *

A few months had gone by, they were still waiting for the court to set a date for the trial that was supposed to happen the same amount of months ago. Honestly Vanya wouldn't blame them. The reason?

It was like it was killer season.

Every week they had a new murder case with a new victim and a new story, and every time she managed to get punched or kicked, have Fluffer bite said suspect, Leonard cuff them a bit harsher than expected, Helen cure her wounds, and have Sissy scold her… Repeat next week.

Of course her demons always managed to creep back to her mind. Always present and always waiting. Preying on her sole soul to judge and remind her of her past sins.

Today in particular she was checking yet again the same prison. Fluffer was a bit riled up, but only because there were other dogs in the building, actual drug detection k-9s. The reason being, someone was found selling drugs inside the prison. She was called of course, because of her position, in reality she was just there to oversee.

'I have three murders just chillin' at my office, can you all check faster?'

"Here" officer Carlos handed her a bag of cocaine, Vanya sniffed it slightly (from the powder that was stuck to the outside of the plastic) but found it to be quite cheap. "Found it under one of the toilets"

"This is very cheap… You can't get high on these." She informed.

"Why do you say so?" The officer probed.

"I'm willing to say that while this does seem to have at least half drugs… The other half at best if flour, or something else."

"You do seem to know a lot about drugs, Agent Hargreeves" Another officer jokingly said while approaching with his Labrador.

"Yes I do, my father is Reginald Hargreaves, so runs in the family" Carl and she laughed, the other man just widened his eyes and quickly walked off.

They laughed harder.

"How's Sissy?" Vanya asked.

"Oh, she's fine actually. Doesn't enjoy her job, she says it was better to cut bodies open than to see others do it and scream of them if they do it wrong"

"Does sound like her"

They were both quite into their exchange when someone called Carlos over, he apologized and went to attend. Vanya rolled her eyes and turned to find Leonard talking to an inmate like nothing was wrong.

"Leonard!"

"Wh-oh hey boss! Mee-"

"Yes, Frank, we met last week. During monthly checkup." Vanya cut him off, not too pleased. "What were you two talking about?"

"Oh! Frank here was telling me about how your old classmates are behaving!"

"... Why would I care?"

"Because… You know what? Forget it boss" Vanya nodded and went back to overseeing the search.

Fluffer was glued to her hip, she wouldn't walk an inch away from her, ears up, tail tense and mouth rigid. She was on the lookout for trouble.

As she should.

"Agent Hargreeves!" Another officer called and as she turned someone tackled her to the ground as a gun was fired. Fluffer immediately ran over to who had the weapon, jumped on him and bit his arm, jaw locking while growling like her whole existence depended on her voice.

"Are you okay?" Finally looking up, she saw who had tackled her.

"Quentin! Get off me"

"No! Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine! I hit my head thanks to you but I'm fine!" Getting up she looked around for the man. It was not hard to find since Fluffer was indeed over him…

Shall she say her?

"What the fuck?" She whispered. "Fluffer!" At her call the dog let go and ran to her side, she took out a handkerchief and wiped off some blood of her muzzle. After she was done she cleared her throat and screamed.

"Drug search is over! Look for guns and knives and weapons! I want every officer with bullet proof vests, prisoners inside their cells! One by one throughout check up!" As she barked out orders, Leonard picked the girl up who had shot and cuffed her. "Go!"

Everyone went to follow her orders, except Quentin, who remained by her side. He was holding his hands at his front while looking like he was expecting a prize.

"What do you want?" Honestly, she didn't have the energy nor the mood for this.

"A 'thank you' would've been nice," he said.

"For what?"

"Uh… Saving your life?" Hands now in his pocket, he lowered his head slightly and raised an eyebrow at her.

Vanya chuckled and shook her head, taking his left hand and placing it across her chest, moving it a little bit up and down. Quentin should've been beet red, he was touching Vanya's chest except…. She wore a bullet proof vest, it was either that, or she was toned as fuck. Now that he thought about it, she did seem pretty heavy when he tackled her. Her clothing helped hide it too, with that jacket and oversized button up he wasn't even able to see her actual body shape.

"... You didn't need saving." He half whispered half chuckled.

"Yes, now, go to your cell."

* * *

Leonard was distracted, one minute he was talking with Frank, the next he was pushed down by said man, a gunshot rang and Vanya was tackled. Leonard was even more distracted when he got up, disoriented, he saw a flash of brown and black go by just to hear a scream and growling.

Fluffer had acted faster than him.

"Are you okay Agent Peabody?" Frank asked while stepping away to let another officer cuff him.

"Yes, I'm fine thank you. How'd you-"

"Heard the click."

"...I see, thank you"

Frank smiled and allowed the officer to take him away. After he was gone Leonard approached the now attacked and bitten girl at the ground to lift her up and take her away, again.

Vanya was barking out orders already. It was in those moments where Leonard understood the reason she was the Senior Agent, the gun was aimed at her, (and now seeing her back he noticed it had indeed hit her, her jacket had a hole, no blood of course,) and fired at her. Yet she managed to contain her shock to immediately get everyone working in safe conditions, that meant police officers and inmates.

As he escorted the woman out to the van and then to the station, Leonard tried to control his nerves, Vanya was shot, and was it not for her stupid addiction to wearing a bulletproof vest she would be dead. Not even Quentin tackling her had managed to avoid the bullet hitting the target...

Once outside he pushed the woman to the car, usually this was done by another female officer, since the suspect could appeal to abuse from a male officer most likely, but he was mad, he didn't care.

"Why?"

The woman didn't answer.

"I asked why" he repeated…

She still wouldn't answer.

"Look, we have two options, or you help me right now by giving me reasons… Or we can take you to another prison with common sleeping places… You know how prisoners get when a new inmate comes, it doesn't limit at all to men"

That seemed to do the trick.

"I -I have three kids… And my mother is sick, I got placed here because of robbery and got seven years, seven years for robbery, my kids… My mum, I needed money… And someone came, offered me money in exchange for killing an inmate."

"You shot the Senior Agent, not a prisoner" Leonard screamed at her, frustrated with her lies.

"I was aiming for Quentin, Agent Hargreeves got in the way…" The woman looked down.

"... She was in front of him and doesn't even reach his chest. You were aiming for her" his hand messaged the bridge of his nose.

"No! I've never fired a gun before! The one for the robbery had the secure on all the time!"

Leonard looked back, inside of the cells. Someone was definitely trying to kill someone else and, by the looks of it, Vanya wasn't the target this time.

It was the suspects.

* * *

That afternoon Vanya went home early, her father had his monthly visit to the psychiatrist, meaning she was alone in the mansion. She thought briefly about watching something on Netflix, but decided against it last minute to just lay around the place doing absolutely nothing.

Vanya had a small collection of knives. Leonard was a woodworker, not his profession or his actual income source, he just liked to carve figures and make little gifts, he had gifted her a piece last Christmas, it was her playing the violin. She liked it, it stood on her bedroom night stand, besides her case and her gun.

She wanted to look at those knives. Wanted to hold them in her hand… Wanted to feel the sharp edge against her finger tips. Remembering this was her main release back when she was a teen, how she would steal a razor from her father, or a wine cup would break and she would keep the sharpest piece.

It was all coming back to her.

Vanya sobbed softly, grabbing the knife's handle so tight it shook on her hand.

Her mind was playing tricks on her.

She had liked Ben back then, but the only reason she had agreed to actually be his girlfriend was, of course, his similarity to Five, back then they all had numbers given out by themselves, finding out you and your six friends shared a birthday (not the same year, anyway) was amazing, but they wanted something more 'special'. They asked their parents the exact hour they were born. Surprisingly, Vanya was the youngest along with Klaus…

When they were younger they all played together, their families knew each other but they formally met at school…

Vanya wanted to scream, not knowing what had caused them to suddenly hate her so much! Quentin had been the worse… and yet she had liked him so much…

Before she could snap out of it her arm felt warm… Looking down she found crimson staring back at her, she sighed.

"I don't know what I'm doing…"

* * *

Helen was busy lately, all the time she had was spent either at work or catching up on sleep at the couch in the lab, sometimes she would pester Leonard… whenever he was free, since most of the time he wasn't even around, Vanya and him were usually tracking suspects, or he was interrogating while she did paperwork.

At least most of the cases were solved.

"Sleeping on the job?" Someone called behind her. Looking back she saw Vanya's boss, ChaCha (nickname she demanded be called) cleared her throat as she stumbled to her feet.

"No ma'am! I was taking a small break since I just finished the pending autopsies and their respective reports." Helen explained, gesturing to the mortuary coolers and then looking down at the pile of folders.

"I see. Everything done?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," quickly she added "at least everything I had."

"Alright, I suppose if you close the blinds and take a nap while I'm in a meeting no one should know"

Helen immediately nodded. ChaCha chuckled and left the woman and her couch to know each other better.

A few hours later Vanya came through the door, Fluffer at her heels. She found Helen still asleep on the couch, laughing softly she placed a jacket over her feet and started reviewing most of the files while she waited for the forensic to wake up.

Most of the reason Vanya and Helen got along at first was that both of them played the violin, they found out when she came in with her fingers in bandages and she casually asked 'Shostakovich?' to which her boss nodded… Leonard hat to bring them lunch that day because they just wouldn't stop talking.

Helen also played piano and viola (but no one was actually keeping track) so most of the time Vanya would talk to her about pieces she just couldn't get right, she would laugh and help her.

One of the reasons Helen was the only one to manage the morgue, was because of her organization abilities, she had a really useful out of the box thinking that had actually helped catch more criminals than one would think, (she could also deal with the most disgusting subjects like nothing in the world was wrong, Vanya had seen her talk about a chopped up body like it was the weather.) So she wasn't actually surprised to see a new report, far away from the others, it didn't have a name but because of the details Vanya knew who it belonged to, Bianca.

Most of it was the same that the one she had at her desk, but something was different… She changed the time of death. It was said that Bianca died between nine and eleven pm, an hour when none of the suspects had an alibi, but now the report read it was actually closer to five or seven pm.

That was a huge time difference! Flipping the page Vanya kept reading. Something that had Helen worried and intrigued at the same time was the livor mortis that was starting to present, the victim had bleed to death, but there were parts and spots in her arms that just didn't have any marks, instead of turning the expected dark red and purple, they were turning white, something that happened days after death, once the livor mortis had cleared. Helen had done a fourth autopsy just to find out the body temperature had been altered after death, meaning the body cooled off for about two hours, then was heated up again, for another two hours, left at the crime scene and subsequently cooled down again. This left four hours in which all of the suspects had alibies… Diego was with his mom, Luther and Allison went to a doctor's appointment, Ben was in a reunion with an old friend who wanted to help him and his current situation, Klaus was having sex with a guy that had insisted he stayed with him even when Klaus himself said he left right after… And Quentin was with his fiance at court…

It all checked out.

…

They were innocent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, they were indeed innocent, too bad it took literal months to find out. 
> 
> Who's the real killer though?
> 
> I know who it is, but you don't.


	4. Prove Yourself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this Chapter, we finally get on Fiveya territoryyyy

Vanya was present the moment they were all released from prison, she saw the moment Luther ran to hug Allison and very carefully kissed the baby's head. Allison had given birth not long ago in the woman section of the prison. She saw how Ben and Klaus went to coo over the baby while Diego and Quentin stood awkwardly to the side.

She wanted to feel sorry, she had taken a once in a lifetime chance out of every one of them, Luther missed the birth of his first kid, Allison was alone, Klaus, Ben, Diego, and Quentin probably didn't even know the baby was already out up until this moment. She desperately wanted to feel anything. But she just felt accomplished… They were hurt by her…

And it scared her… It scared her how pleased she felt with it…

Fluffer licked her hand and whined softly, Vanya looked down and rubbed her ear between her fingers while taking a deep, long breath.

"Get inside the police van, I'm taking you all to one of my properties, you'll be monitored 24/7 the whole time the investigation is open." She informed, straightening her body.

"Why? You know we're not guilty Vanny." Klaus tried to reason with her while holding her hands. She pulled them away immediately to place them inside her pockets for a few seconds just to take them out for professionalism purposes.

"It's for your safety. Someone wants you dead, and you all have something to lose, it's easier to keep an eye on you all if we have just one place to look after. So get inside." Vanya's voice was even and relaxed, even if her hand was tense while pointing to said vehicle.

"... Vanya plea-" with a stern look they all shut their mouths and got inside the van. Leonard and officer Carl were escorting them in normal police cars. Fluffer all the while would be riding with Leonard (since she couldn't go in the front and there was no room in the back.)

Once her pup was safe with her partner she got in the van and started driving.

It was the middle of the day in Dallas's State heat, the sun was scorching and most of them were sweating, even more, when the reached the traffic jam of noon in the central city, Allison, Diego, and Klaus tied their hair, and Allison and Quentin took off their jackets, Quentin rolled his sleeves, Luther took off his coat and Ben just grabbed a magazine to blow air in his face.

All the while she remained still with her three layers of clothes: bra, bulletproof vest, dress shirt, and jacket. She was aware she dripped sweat, she was aware she could very well suffer from heatstroke in this weather if she did not take some clothes off... but she didn't care. No one was taking away her safety.

"You can take off the jacket too… We won't tell your officer in charge." Ben tried to joke.

She ignored him.

About an hour into the traffic with barely any progress her vision began getting blurry… She was incredibly thirsty but if she drank water she would have something to puke, and that didn't sound appealing, at all. Vanya just needed to stay calm and once they were out of the van she would be able to take the jacket off… Once they were out of the traffic jam her headache would disappear. It was all a matter of time…

It wouldn't matter if she took her jacket off… Right? She would still have her shirt… No, she couldn't, she had grabbed a short-sleeved dress shirt out of the hurry and with her bandaged arms… She just couldn't deal with that. Luckily most of them were busy reading or cooing over the baby tha-the baby!

"Is the baby okay?" She asked over the silence.

"Whatever do you mean, Vanya" Allison sounded confused.

'Let it slide…' Instead, she answered "The heat"

"Oh yes, he's fine." From the mirror, she saw her do a double-take. "Thank you for as-"

"Leave it."

Half an hour later she could tell there was something wrong with this traffic, they were not advancing at all, and with a quick message to Leonard, she confirmed there had been an accident downtown. It would all be fixed soon… but her head...

"Vanya, please take off your clothes… I mean… At least your jacket" That was Klaus. She didn’t understand what he meant, she wasn’t sweating, she was fine.

"I don't know if you do it on purpose… It if you're just that stupid, I'm 'Agent Hargreeves', or 'Officer' if the other one hurts your ego too much. No matter how you all see I'm now I'm on top, so don't address me like when we were kids, cause we're not anymore."

"Okay then, Agent Hargreeves," Quentin started, "please take off your jacket, you look like you're about to faint."

She turned the AC on to shut them all up. The bad thing is… It was only functioning in the back, this van had been okay the day before, she was about to turn it off but they all looked so pleased she just left it...

She was still getting all the heat. Vanya laid her head on the steering wheel to rest a bit.

At about two pm the traffic started moving again, yet their van stayed still, good thing they were at the side of the road, most cars just drove around them. The escort was a few blocks behind.

"Va-Agent, we're moving…" That was Ben.

She didn't answer.

"Agent?" Now it was Diego.

No response.

"Vanya!" Both Quentin and Klaus launched forward to get her to react. She wasn't responding, she was out cold with burning skin and no sweating.

Heatstroke.

"She fainted…"

"Oh, shit she fainted in a car with convicts! We've screwed again!"

"That's the least of our worries now Klaus!" Allison got up from her seat "Open the door, we need her out of the cabin." They opened the door that led to the side of the street, Klaus immediately ran to a store to request an ice package while Quentin took the earcom she had to warn whoever was listening of their situation. He received orders to cool down her body until the whole of them could go over, deciding at that moment he was going to be that person he took Vanya in his arms and placed her in the back seat, near one of the air conditioner vents while Diego parked the vehicle correctly, all the while Klaus had come back with two ice packages and a towel over them while handing them over to Quentin, who closed the door in their face to tend to Vanya.

The first thing was taking off her shoes and jacket, the moment he did that he swore he felt a small rush of heat in his lower belly that he decided to ignore for the sake of everyone around him and the woman currently in his lap. Another thing he needed to remove was the bulletproof vest she always wore… that was under her shirt, once again that was another heat rush… unbuttoning her shirt he unfastened the vest while also taking her bra off (The thing had fabric along with a sponge and wire support, it was attracting heat to itself.) Once again he placed the arms of the dress shirt on and proceeded to place one of the ice packs between her (exposed) breasts, the other one on the side of her neck, and the towel over her feet. Quentin then grabbed the magazine Ben was blowing himself with and began giving Vanya some more air.

“You are such an idiot… Vanya”

He started getting cold, but at the same time Vanya’s body temperature was going down rapidly and thus he decided to stay put, this was beneficial for her and his progressing hypothermia was nothing. Quentin wanted to keep his gaze upward, his hand was already between her breasts to steady the ice pack, and yet, his palm and fingertips kept feeling small lifts in the skin… Not from the curvature of where her chest began rising, but from thin, healed scars that left marks.

He looked down quickly just enough to make it appear as if he was fixing the ice pack, but long enough to see what he wanted to check, and as he did so… He quieted the surprised gasp that left his mouth, Vanya's chest had a few scars, mostly bullet wounds that he guessed were the reason she always wore her vest… her arms were bandaged from the palm of her hands to her elbow, the reason they hadn't noticed were the fingerless gloves. Then there was her neck… Where the everlasting scar of her suicide attempt was. It's thin, delicate appearance mocking Five.

In what was only about five seconds of fiddling with the bag, he lifted his gaze again and closed his eyes while resting his head on the back of the seat, all the while breathing in long exhales. Calming himself down…

Quentin wanted to hang himself.

* * *

“The doctor says she’s going to be fine. She just needs plenty of rest and water.” Leonard informed the group waiting outside.

“Can I see her?” Quentin asked, not even waiting for everyone to breathe in relief.

“I wouldn’t recommend it. She’s in a delicate state and needs to be in peace, and you guys don’t exactly give her any peace.” He leaned on the doorway to the room with his arms crossed.

Leonard was a buff guy, he looked strong and with his stare, he could very well carve holes into your soul. No wonder he was Vanya’s partner, she was a small, unthreatening looking woman (even if she was quite deadly should you look at her in a bad way), there was also her dog, who Quentin just now noticed was laying down across the room’s entrance, she was a german shepherd, the race that was considered ‘kings and queens’ of domestic canines.

But he didn’t care. He needed to see her.

"I need to talk to her. It's important."

Leonard shook his head again and continued standing between him and Vanya. He now heard Luther calling him over to the couch where they all were. He wouldn't listen. This was something he needed to talk with Vanya urgently, this could not wait, and thus standing up he tried to go inside the room… But seeing her laying down on the cot with an oxygen mask and an IV connected to her arm, it brought memories of that time when they were both seventeen… And she had recently hung herself…

"Buddy" Leonard called.

"... Yeah"

"Go sit down. She needs rest, if you want to talk to her you'll do it later." He coaxed. Vanya moved her head slightly in her sleep, she looked peaceful and calm… who was he to take that from her again?

* * *

Helen had heard what happened to Vanya, of course, she had, but at the same time her friend was at a hospital being treated, she had three dead bodies waiting to be cut up and diagnosed for the cause of death. So of course she had stayed in the lab. That didn't mean she wasn't blowing Leonard's phone for updates every ten minutes.

She was chatting up with cadavers the whole day. All of which didn't answer, because of lack of manners she presumed. The worst that has happened was her dropping the scalpel inside a lung. And that was before lunch, now it was barely two pm and yet again she had managed to crew up again with the 'y' cut. She was lacking focus today…

"You can always blame it on a student." She heard someone from the doorway. And lifting her gaze she saw the old forensic doctor. Sissy.

"Oh hey! Nice to see you, Sissy!" Helen smiled while placing the knife away and discarding her gloves. "I'm just… Worried for Vanya you know."

"Yeah. I know."

"I'm worried for her, and that's messing up my job! For one, I can't leave this place without finishing reports… And for two… I'm so distracted I can't even cut straight."

"I can see that. Let me help you." Sissy grabbed a pair of gloves from the box of discardable ones at the side of the desk.

"No no, Sissy you're out of your shift. I heard you were a night shift supervisor."

"I am. But I also had a day off yesterday." She smiled at her and started working on the woman's body besides the one Helen was busy on. "So no worries."

"Thank you…" she smiled at her and kept on working.

"I heard they got out of jail. Proved innocent?" Sissy asked after a while of silence.

They both knew who they were. Vanya's old bullies she was so guilty yet happy to imprison. Helen had tried hard to hide that report from her friend, she kept it on her side of the room, as she usually did to unfinished reports (meaning she had to revise them or redo them.)

"I found something last time on the victim's throat. With that ring, we were able to determine that none of them were the killers."

"What… Did you find?" She proved delicately, sounded distracted, and focused on the job she was doing.

"An old vintage ring," Helen answered, writing down something on the notepad to continue with the corpse.

"Oh, that's nice, you can trace it back to the owners right?" Sissy smiled.

"No, it's way too old to have any record on the owner. Vanya said it was probably a family heirloom and then I would be lost on layers upon layers of family bonds. It's complicated." She sighed but looked up, holding Sissy's stare. "At least we proved them innocent with that!"

The blonde woman nodded and kept quiet after that.

"Wait… What?"

* * *

"Morning boss," Leonard greeted while handing her an apple and a glass filled with water.

"Morning Leonard…" She smiled and grabbed what he was offering, her hand was shaking the whole time, the doctor had been very clear on one matter (apart from the obvious heatstroke problem). Vanya needed psychiatric assistance.

He had explained how she was expressing suicidal tendencies. He knew she had tried to kill herself before thanks to the scar on her neck, he also saw… How she was reverting to the old ways, the many new scars on her arms told him as much, how her ribs were showing a bit more than what was 'considered' healthy and lastly… Just how sloppy she had gotten on the job, how many bruises of bullet wounds, punches, and just about any injury she wore.

"The doctor said you're good to leave tomorrow… But he advised you not to be left alone at all…" He informed, sitting down on the chair that was in the room with them.

"... Why not? I mean… We're a good team but even you have your cases Leonard, and I've been able to work alone just fine" she tried to counterattack.

"Boss, it's not about the fact that you work well alone or not, because you and I know that answer, it's about your own safety." He reasoned with her once more, trying desperately to make her comprehend.

"I know how to take care of myse-"

"VANYA YOU'RE TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!" he exclaimed loudly, loud enough to startle the small group outside the room.

"No, I'm… Leonard.. "

"Vanya, you know how much I care for you, how much the team cares for you… You and I both know… You know you've been getting careless." He explained a bit more toned down. "You and I… We both know this feeling of failure and resentment, and maybe you can't see it right now, but I've been where you are Vanya, and I tried to die many times in the army, I have scars that prove so." Either a deep breath he continued. "And I know you do too, I've seen them now that the doctor showed me the record, you've been mutilating yourself over your past, your subconscious is trying to get you to die, you jump in front of cars, get in bullet's way, starve and cut yourself, ignore heatstroke's symptoms in Dallas's midday heat … You've become sloppy Vanya."

"That's normal! I always wear a ves-"

"I always wear gloves when I'm craving and yet I still manage to cut my arms if I swing too strongly…" Another deep breath. "Vanya, you also don't want to die… You wear your vest everywhere as you just said and you make sure someone can find you if you happen to get hurt…"

"Leonard…"

"I know you won't talk to me, I can't help, while our lives were similar up to a point we're way too different, and for this case, I can't be your partner any longer"

Her whole world stopped…

Was he abandoning her?

….now?

"Leonard no!"

"Vanya… I'll be your partner again once this case is over, but right now, neither you nor I can work together, a glass cup with a hammer just won't work well together" his gaze was soft… But she could tell he was doing his best to remain composed and strong.

"... Who, if I…"

"You have Fluffer." He suggested jokingly.

"She bites everyone but you!"

"Now you're just making excuses… The Lieutenant will assign you a civilian consultant to work with. They're going over options right now."

This caused the small woman to turn her back on the guy, holding a pillow close to her chest while holding in tears. She tries to keep her cool… And she knew she was crying for nothing, Leonard wasn't leaving her forever, he was just giving her space when she needed space, and even if she recognized she did need a change of space and company, for this time specifically, she just felt betrayed.

But his words got her thinking, had she been doing that? She remembered jumping over bullets, getting involved in dangerous situations that usually got her a black eye in return… How much of that was herself just wishing to get hurt…?

She knew… These last few months she'd been doing it way more. How many times had she gone to Helen's lab with a black eye or a bruise on her arm and chest?

As she heard Leonard leave and close the door, she allowed herself a moment of weakness…

She cried.

* * *

Quentin jumped a little at Leonard’s outburst, he looked back and sighed, he knew of her marks, but he hadn’t known that fact about Vanya putting herself in danger, he had seen her jumping in front of bullets, screaming at criminals to ‘shoot!’ just to give everyone else a chance to charge at the criminal but, she also used her vest every single time she was out in the field, this much he knew from his time in prison.

“... Can you believe Vanya wants to die?” Allison whispered, holding the baby close to her chest.

“I’ve sometimes seen her chasing dealers on the street, she’s fast and… yes, she does sometimes get shot, but I never thought she was doing that on purpose,” Klaus stated. “and now I feel like shit, I helped many of those criminals escape.”

“Klaus, you know none of those were your fault,” Luther said.

“No, Luther, I remember she got hurt so many times, times of which I had snitched on her, the dealers got so mad, and even more when they knew who her father was… guys,” he turned to look at them. “They would literally pull her down by the hair, sometimes I was there and just had to laugh… I had to...”

“I’m sure she knows you weren’t doing it to hurt her.” Allison tried to comfort.

“oh no, I’m sure she thinks I did that to anger her further…" he answered, covering his face with his hands. "Last time I saw her she had a pixie cut when she met the dealers…"

"... But her hair reaches her back now…" Ben thought out loud.

"For you to see how long it's been since I last saw her… She's… Five?" They barely called themselves by numbers anymore. It was just in moments of weakness.

"Yes?"

"... Is she really that … That hurt? She looked really bad in the van, but does she really have that many scars? I only saw the bullet wounds…"

_"Quentin, I got more ic-oh shit!"_

_Klaus always had a way of showing up in uncomfortable circumstances. Be it between a fight, make out session (he even managed to walk in on a scene between Diego and Ben, asking why the hell wasn't he invited…) but it was the first time he did that to Quentin, much worse his own sister._

_"Shh! Come in and close the door!" Quentin urged while motioning with his head, not once glancing down at Vanya, keeping his stare fixed on the roof of the van._

_Klaus did as told and sat himself besides him, placing the other ice bag under Vanya's lower back, her face was peaceful and relaxed, her skin temperature was still hot (not healthy) but she was recovering… From what he could tell she was already getting cooler._

_"... How is she?" Klaus asked, taking off his jacket to place it over Vanya's chest, covering her up a bit. "... Are those?"_

_"Yes… She has quite the collection of bullet wounds… Apart from that, she has a few that come out her back." Quentin released his breath slowly while inhaling once again._

_"... Any other?" Curiosity got the best of him, so he looked over the jacket, to her lower belly, almost immediately he turned his head upwards, right in her abdomen was the biggest scar he'd seen…_

_"Yeah… That one you just saw… Comes out from her back as well..." He whispered._

_"... It looks… How did she survive?"_

_"I don't know Klaus…"_

He just nodded.

If he had heard correctly, Vanya would need a new partner, and he knew exactly how to do so.

* * *

A few days later, Vanya was cleared, able to go back into fieldwork. Leonard had been working on his own case the whole week, and thus wasn't able to greet her at the front door of the station. Who was there instead… Was Quentin. Fluffer barked at him.

"... The fuck is he doing here?" She asked herself, quite far from him, that meant he hadn't heard her.

"Morning boss" he greeted while she passed right by him. And that statement made her stop dead in her tracks… Boss?

"... What did you call me?" She whispered.

"Boss," Quentin repeated. "That's what everyone here calls you!"

"... Quentin, that's because I'm the Senior Agent, I work here, you don't."

He didn't utter another word, just followed her inside, Fluffer sniffed his leg, sneezed, and kept going, Vanya presumed he was there due to a testimony he had to give, probably something he had to pick up, and he was just using her as unsolicited assistance.

However, when they reached her office and she entered it… Fluffer jumping on her bed, he just sat on her couch and eyed the office, pleased with himself.

"Get out," Vanya said while sitting in her chair and pointing to the door.

"You can't kick me out!"

"Yes, I can! This is my office and not yours. I work here and you don't! Now get out of my off-"

At that moment her boss entered the room. Chacha was a woman who inspired respect wherever she went, she was strong and admirable, had been in the army with Leonard and, from what he had told her, she was one scary woman when mad, she stood up and greeted her properly. Fluffer also sat up with her chest puffed.

"Good morning Lieutenant ChaCha…"

"Morning Vanya, I see you've met your new partner" she motioned to the left, looking at Quentin.

"... What?"

"Oh, didn't he inform you already?" She seemed genuinely surprised. "Then I shall do something myself. This is Quentin Shawrz, the new Profiler and he's your new partner. ." She smiled and left.

She just looked at her side… And Quentin smiled at her…

Damn her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will maybe have 10 chapters... maybe, I know where to go, just not how long it'll take me to reach there


	5. Profiler not Consultant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Long time no see! Fiveya week drained me so hard... Anyway. We're back!

"So… Is your work always this boring?" Quentin asked for the tenth time that morning.

Leonard stiffed a laugh at Vanya's deep breath. Quentin was the newly hired companion for Vanya, office companion more than less, she wasn't taking it well. As the Senior Agent in the division Vanya would usually work either alone or with someone that could match her pace, Leonard was usually that someone, but since their departure of paths because of a certain case, she had been stuck with Quentin.

"Have you been seeing TV shows…?" She finally answered while closing a file. "And I mean Police TV shows"

"Yes, I've watched CSI Miami, I watched Lucifer, finished Hannibal…" He started listing the names. Vanya just chuckled dryly. "Why are you laughing? I've done my research!"

"No, look. You're a profiler, if we get another murder case soon you'll come with me to interview parents, friends, look at the crime scene, but under no circumstances will you come with me to arrests or actual persecutions. I may take you at times to a visit and that may turn into a chase, in case that happens you stay out of my mary way" she blinked a few times while smiling sweetly at him. "Got it?"

"So I take testimonies and build profiles for certain clues you may have?" She nodded. "... So I'm a consultant?" Vanya rolled her eyes.

"No, a consultant is someone who works on a single kind of case, say… A robbery? A consultant may be a former thief that can provide the FBI or the officers with additional information they may have missed because of not knowing what the usual surroundings and meaning of things are."

Vanya was able to work in peace after that explanation and for a short while she was able to get some paperwork done. Until Grace came by to drop a file on her desk. Opening it up she grabbed her jacket immediately, whistled Fluffer over, and patted Quentin on the shoulder to follow her.

"Where are we going?" He asked while getting up, tripping over his feet a little bit.

"New case" she simply said while lifting the folder Grace had dropped earlier. "You'll examine it in the car." Vanya shoved it in his chest while keeping her pace to her car.

* * *

"Suicide? Why were you called to oversee a suicide?"

"Because I got called. Deal with it." She answered with that tone which meant there was no more room for any sort of argument. The scene was a school, an elementary school. The body itself had been hanging from the loop of the basketball ring, he would lie if he said he didn't feel sick, the guy had saliva pouring down his chin…

"Helen! What'd you got for me?"

"Teen boy, name's Connor Blake from what a girl told me. Mid-teens, probably going into his sixteenth year of life." The forensic said while checking for other injuries, "his hair is wet...". Helen muttered under her breath.

Fluffer immediately went to see him, sniffed a bit, and laid down next to the boy's body.

"Fluffer?" Vanya called her, when the dog didn't respond she looked at Helen. "You sure he's dead?"

"What?" Helen looked at Vanya with a tilted head. The Asian woman leaned over the body, close to his nose. Just to get up suddenly towards her bag.

"Van-boss? what's wrong!?" Quentin asked over Helen's panic.

"He's still alive!" She blurred while getting a small oxygen mask out of her bag, placed it over the guy's mouth and nose while quickly calling over the paramedics who were calming the student that found the body. They checked his vitals and immediately loaded him to a cot, connecting him to a vial. "Damn… I almost placed my finger on his throat…"

Quentin looked a bit shaken up, she shook her head and turned to her left to look at the small crowd of noisy students that had followed her to the stadium. She noticed a group of guys looking towards them, one of them tried to appear strong but Vanya knew better.

"Excuse me" as she approached them she noticed how small she was compared to the leader of the group. She dealt with worse before. "Did you know him?"

"Why do you care?" Snotty? She was going to have fun.

"We need to know why he might've done it. And unlike everyone else who looks like they want to puke. You look pretty stable to me." Vanya placed her hands on her hips, showing her badge. Fluffer was also a great influence on her presence there.

There was a reason German Shepherds were called the kings of dog race, their sole appearance was threatening. Fluffer, even if she was the runt of the litter, she grew to be big, she was strong, she stood proud by Vanya's side, reacting her hip, her paw was the size of her palm and her head was huge, not to mention her fangs…

She was a power image (even if she was fluffy inside out).

"Of course I'm good. About time he did that!" he puffed while rolling his eyes.

"Sounds like you didn't like him." She said. The guy puffed again.

"No one liked him. He was a freak." the guy puffed once more, he should get his chest checked out. "He was a liar too. Everything that came out of his mouth was a lie."

"How are you so sure?" Vanya placed her hands inside her pockets.

"Everyone else says the same. You can ask and stop pestering me" his group of friends laughed along with him, "Dwarf rabbit" now even Quentin tries not to laugh.

"Excuse you?" Leonard, who was talking to Helen, turned around along with the forensic doctor, both immediately pulling the new profiler off of Vanya's side for a few moments.

"Dwarf rabbit."

_"... Did you just call me bunny?"_

_Five and Seven used to be close, Vanya's father was very keen of him, he said it was probably the only child he'd seemed that was able to sit with his daughter and son without trembling about who her father was. He was also incredibly smart for his age, whilst Vanya's intelligence was aimed towards her music (and her indisputable sixth sense) Quentin's was towards practical problems. Math._

_They met thanks to Five's parents wanting to invest in a small company Reginald was starting anew. Apart from the usual umbrella corporation he wanted to start a printer for school books, specifically those for advanced kids. The books were tested by Quentin and Vanya and because of that, they got closer._

_"Yes, a dwarf rabbit"_

_Five had trouble pronouncing her name for the first years in their friendship, Klaus called her 'Vanny' yet Quentin refused to use that nickname, something about it not being appropriate (they were four, nothing was appropriate)_

_"Why a dwarf rabbit?"_

_"Because you're small… And cute"_

"Well, dwarf rabbits have an amazing sense of smell" she reached into the guy's jacket front pocket, (having put on a latex pair of gloves before) picking a metal wallet with a thin, translucent paper sticking out from the edge she immediately lowered it for Fuffler to smell, with a small pat on her nose the dog pawed the metal box while pushing it with her nose all the while looking up at Vanya. "Wouldn't you look at that? Cigarette paper. And the box smells slightly of marijuana…" Vanya grinned sideways while handing the box to an officer who had arrived after Fluffer's demeanor.

"Check his bag and his friend's bag, no, you know what?" She looked at the whole stadium full of curious kids behind the yellow tape. "Check every single bag. Might as well be fair here."

"Way to go, Brandon" one of the boys grumbled while handing his bag to Grace.

"I'm not done speaking with yo-" Brandon wanted to clean his name that moment and considering Vanya never liked people touching her, she immediately grabbed his wrist when this guy grabbed her shoulder out of the blue to pull her back, this 'Brandon' guy tried to use his other hand to make her stay, a stupid decision as Vanya switched to grab his other wrist with both hands, placed that arm over her right shoulder, elbow at chin, extended her leg backward a little to finally bend over with force to fling the guy onto the floor.

“Don’t touch me”

Quentin wanted to laugh at the gesture and yet he feared that if he laughed Vanya would also fling him over her shoulder. She was smaller than his niece who was ten, and yet she was stronger than anyone he had ever met in his life.

He just fell in love. (Note the sarcasm)

Fluffer was quick to stand between her owner and the guy when he tried to stand up again. Leonard had come to this scene, not because of her in particular, but because it connected to another case he had worked on a few weeks ago on child abuse. The boy was the same.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you pal, that right there is the Senior Agent, if she says you assaulted her, you did"

"But she was the on-"

"Don't touch a police officer," Brandon looked over at Quentin. "You have no idea how many people reach at them to hit them, right now she has a bruised chest" he blinked a few times, "from a bullet wound pal."

"... Sorry."

* * *

" _Klaus, what's wrong? Why's no one talking to me?" Vanya tried once more to talk with her twin, to make him look at her. Yet he didn't spare her a glance. His hand moved down towards his pocket, grabbed a cigarette to place it on his lips, grabbed the lighter and took a smoke._

_"You know what you did."_

_That was the only thing he'd tell her, that was the only stupid thing he would say to her, yet she recalled everything, every last moment from the last two weeks that lead to this conversation. Vanya hadn't done, said or even thought anything that could've made the whole class (cross that, the whole school) hate her._

_Everything has been fine, she didn't have many friends to begin with. She wasn't as outspoken or friendly as Klaus and Allison, as handsome (pretty in her case) as Luthers, sporty as Diego, or as smart as Ben and Quentin… Yet she was good at music and once upon a time the class would pay her to play a few pieces for them…_

_Now they grabbed her lunch money (not that that affected her at all)._

_What had gone wrong?_

_What had she done?_

* * *

"Is my son okay?" The father asked, first to arrive at the hospital.

"... We called for the mother. She's his legal guardian," Grace answered slightly confused.

"Yes, I know. The court gave her custody because… she's the mother, but please, I need to see my son! I need to know he's okay!" Quentin turned around at this point, having stayed outside the room when Vanya went in to sit with the boy until his mother came to stay with him.

One of the tasks in profiling for any investigation was to read the victims and of course, make a profile for them. He noticed immediately the worry in that man's eyes was legit, his whole body was slightly shaken up, brows knitted together in a downwards fashion showing concern, (his eyes wrinkles proved that to be real), his hands were well kept while his clothes were disheveled, some buttons were undone and his hair messy.

A worried, visitation prohibited father.

"Let him in Agent Grace," Quentin said to her while nodding at the room's direction. "He's being honest, and if I’m being honest, I would say ‘deny entrance to the mother’”

Grace sighed, yet knowing he had done a quick analysis on the man she stepped aside, where the man rushed inside, grasped his child’s hand while kissing his knuckles to later place them at his forehead, murmuring what sounded like a prayer in a hushed voice. Vanya, sensing this was no longer her place, got up, called Fluffer, and headed for the door.  
This case, this specific case was very close to home. Vanya had been exactly where this kid laid now, she knew how much his throat was going to hurt, how much of a hard time he was going to have to walk again, his voice would take months to return, and eating would hurt for so long… he would wear scarfs for years hiding a scar that only himself could see, no one else would see that scar, yet he would sometimes feel it suddenly and he would need to go lay down somewhere because he would get dizzy…

Vanya knew, because to this day, almost a decade later, she still lost her voice, still got tired, still got back pains, still got dizzy spells.

Yet, as she was about to go through the door the father grabbed her arm, looked at her in her eyes while whispering something that she heard her father say back in that room so many years back.

“Who made him do this?”

_“Who made you do this?”_

_The room was white, cold, and dry, Reginald had dropped everything to stay at her side, her left hand had the IV connected while her right hand was in her father’s. Vanya wasn’t able to breathe on her own at the moment but she was awake, very much awake. Her eyes tightened while shaking her head in such a delicate and unnoticeable way that Reginald was only able to notice due to her slight grunt due to the movement on her sore neck._

_“Whoever they are honey… they’re paying for this.”_

“We’re investigating this sir, don’t worry, he is pulling through.”

“How can you say that?! He’s on the brink of death! If only you people had investigated his mother when I told you to! He wouldn’t be here!” the man was as broken as they came, his eyes were weak, unfocused with tears, his breath was probably as shaggy as her father’s back then. She knew the kid’s pain, yet she knew nothing of a parent’s pain. “My son used to be so happy, he was filled with joy and amazement, and then I wasn’t allowed to see him any longer… I sent money, begged the judge to look into her, to prosecute her, but since an abusive mother just ‘can’t be’...”

“Sir, I underst-”

“No, you don’t! You all say you do! That you want to help and then you do shit!”

Vanya, tired and wanting to get it over with, decided to take off her scarf to reveal the thin, silver looking scar that ran across her neck, since the father seemed more confused than understanding she proceeded to roll her sleeves up to show him her wrists. He made an 'oh' gesture and sat down again, taking his son's hand in his.

"I understand your son, though I can't understand you, I get what he has to go through. So believe me when I say I'm going to get behind all of this."

The man nodded and turned to face his kid again.

"I hope you never understand me."

* * *

"Hey, it's okay Helen, he's in the hospital now, because of your fast actions he can now have a chance to live." Leonard tried to comfort her.

The whole crew was at the hospital still, Vanya and Quentin were waiting for the mother and whilst Leonard had a pile of cases just chilling at his desk, he also felt a huge need to comfort Helen, as much as she pestered him, she always stayed inside limits. She respected his boundaries. She was always giddy and happy and even if Helen was a bit serious sometimes, she was also a reliable person.

She was a good friend (with a huge crush on him).

"I missed it! He was alive Leonard! He had a pulse! When we got him down he was… he was dead. He wasn't breathing! I checked as I always do!" She covered her face with her hands. "He was cold, Leonard! He was dead!"

I wasn't unheard of. People had indeed woken up many times in morgues after being declared dead, it could be attributed to many things. The body was cold, not freezing cold (as one would assume it needed to be to decrease the cells need for oxygen), he was already presenting the livor mortis, stiff muscles, he was not breathing, and yet he was fucking alive. Those types of cases were usually caused by a mistake on a med student, someone without a license and lastly a military officer.

She was a certified Forensic Doctor.

It was her job to say if someone was dead or not.

"I'm sure there's some medical crap that's the reasoning behind it…"

"... He was alive, Leonard!"

He just sighed. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

"... So, dwarf rabbit" Quentin said while reading the information Vanya had thrown to him, literally.

"Shut it."

"You know, it was a silly thing, I'm sure you now realize how stupid it was for you to have said that."

Vanya, who had been rubbing Fluffer's ears, suddenly tensed. Did she realize it? Did she regret it? Did she finally know why she was shunned and cast aside for years? Did she finally know why she had trust issues? Did she know why she was suicidal? Did she finally understand why on God's green earth did she want to get shot so badly? No, no to all of them! She didn't know, she didn't understand and couldn't recall what happened…

Fluffer sensed the moment Vanya's body tensed. How she suddenly stopped breathing evenly, and so, she nudged her leg with her nose as a signal, 'be careful, you're going to relapse'.

"... No, I can't realize anything, if I didn't do anything!"

"... We're adults now Vanya" Quentin said, placing the folder down to his side. "No need to lie anymore."

"Quentin, I swear on my mother's grave I don't know! I never knew and never understood, had I know what the fuck I did wrong I would've apologized," she pointed to the floor, then she straightened up and sighed "but I know nothing."

Before he could say anything…

Someone cleared their throat behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few of you have said I touch emotions really well, first of all...  
> Y'all make me blush (//⊙_☉//)  
> Second of all, I base my stories on my own experiences or an experience close enough so I know how to write it.
> 
> So, Vanya's bullying experience is actually what happened with me, exactly the same, this is kind of me letting the story be known and releasing all of this in a good way.
> 
> Sorry this is not as long as my usuals, as I said I'm still a bit drained.


	6. Baby Breath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii! This is a new chapter! We're getting there! Also... Imma add slowburn to the tags... 👀😅.
> 
> This was beta read by: Jules5971

Vanya turned around. The sound of a throat-clearing had her effectively distracted from her passive-aggressive conversation with Quentin.

Looking at this woman, she felt like the whole case has been resolved. Undoubtedly she seems to be the reason behind this unfortunate boy's suicide attempt. The most adequate word to describe this woman would be… Karen. She was blonde, naturally, it appeared, long pink nails with a typical bob cut. She wore black jeans and a red dress shirt, her heels looked like they would likely leave an indent on the floor. She moreover retained this look of 'you're squandering my time by looking at me.'

"I suppose you're-"

"I'm Lisa's mother," she said with an eye roll. "What's wrong?"

Lisa? There was no 'Lisa' in their care, only Connor. He was inside his room with his father, a man who moved the sun and moon to get to his child. Though Vanya could see some facial resemblance betwen woman's face with the kid, she couldn't allow her in, especially if she was looking for a female and not a male.

"Ma'am, we don't have someone named Lisa in our care," Vanya explained to her while ever so gently closing the door to the room. "If you talk to one of the nurses, I'm sure she'll-"

"Of course you do! Lisa! Lisa!" Karen started screaming into the air.

"Miss! No there is no 'Lisa' is in our care! Please, you must be mistaken. The front desk is over there." She said once again to calm her down. Just to be silenced when the woman tried forcing her aside to enter the room Vanya was currently blocking.

Vanya didn't budge an inch.

"Ma'am. Go to the front desk and ask for your daughter." Quentin spoke now, looking over her shoulder for a nurse, somebody that held any authority around here. None of the staff was in the hallway.

"No! My daughter is in there! I know it!"

"Ma'am, I'm asking you one last time to go and ask for your daughter, she's not here." She was close to snapping, she had been in heated passive-aggressive arguments before, her patience and tranquility were going out the window soon enough.

"NO! I'M HAVING YOU ARRESTED FOR HARASSMENT! LET ME IN!"

At the moment Quentin had enough; he walked behind Vanya to gently move her coat aside and show the badge to the raging woman. "Now, she can have you arrested. What charges are there for excessive public noises?" Quentin now looked down at her, she had to grasp every fiber inside of her screaming to get away, just to restrain herself from throwing him over her shoulder like Brandon earlier. Vanya would've done it, any other day if it wasn't for his little display silencing the woman.

"I can have you be taken in for Disruption of Peace in a public facility. So, either you go, ask for your daughter and leave us alone, or I place these -" she looked at her belt pocket where she kept her cuffs, one was hanging out at the moment," on your wrists and have a nice, relaxing ride in the back of a police car. What do you say?" She blinked a few times and smiled sweetly, the same way she had done earlier to Quentin.

That seemed to do the trick, the woman quieted down enough to speak calmly. The way she changed her posture immediately, putting on that sugary smile. Quentin didn't like this woman. Not one bit. Vanya also seemed uneasy, but that was for a different reason. He bet the reason she felt so weird was the fact that the woman had tried to push her, and Quentin remembered, Allison pushed her around the same way during their high school years.

"I'm Lisa's mother." She reiterated calmly.

"For the last time ma'am. No Lisa is in our care. Please go look for your child somewhere else."

She thought the issue was resolved. As the woman turned to the desk and was about to leave, the father walked out to the room where Connor was recuperating.

"Jerry? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with my son," he simply said.

"Daughter." She replied, folding her arms over her chest.

"No, if my boy says he's no girl, then I have a son." The man held the doorknob tight, looking the woman directly in the eye.

"She's a girl, no matter what you say or she says. Lisa was born a female and stays a female."

Vanya now understood. Connor was Lisa, and that was probably the reason the parents divorced. Though she was used to seeing it the other way around, the father was usually the one who wanted the child to stay the same, the mother would try to support her child even if she wasn't completely on board. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the woman lunging towards the man, neither Mr. Thompson trying to get her off, or Quentin trying his best to restrain Fluffer from defending Vanya.

"BUNYA!"

_"Honestly… You need to stop calling me 'dwarf rabbit. It's longer than 'Vanya' and not an actual nickname."_

_That was in fifth grade, Quentin had been calling her that since they were six years old. Slowly but surely everyone was starting to call her the same; it was more of a taunt than an actual term of endearment for the others._

_To this day Quentin couldn't pronounce her name. He'd gotten so used to the nickname that he'd completely forgotten about her actual name and the purpose of the nickname in the first place. She started calling him Five, just to mock his name, meant to return the favor for making her a literal pet in everyone else's eyes._

_"What was your name again?"_

_"Five!" She rolled her eyes. "Van-ya"_

  
_".... Alright then. Bunya"_

_"... What?"_

That was their new nickname.

That was the name that snapped her out of her mind. Upon seeing the situation, she immediately jumped between the two of them, pushing the woman against the wall, spreading her legs with her feet while cuffing her.

"You're under arrest for disruption of peace in a public place-"

"It's a hospital!"

"Still a public facility" Vanya rolled her eyes while pushing the woman to the car, Fluffer following in an instant.

Quentin turned to look at the father, nodded at him, and followed the bunny.

______________________________________

"Hey, I see you brought some work files," Helen said while sitting beside Leonard on the hospital's couch. "What is it about?"

"Well… I was working on a child abuse case, reported by a high school teacher last month and, Helen, it was Connor." The man said while passing a hand through his hair. "If I had just worked faster on the case, maybe now… Maybe today he would be awake, in another school, having fun, like a normal kid, not lying in a hospital bed half dead."  
Helen sighed, she was used to dealing with dead people, people who she could understand and help to solve crimes. People who she didn't feel guilty about because they were not breathing anymore. They weren't alive, and none of them resented what was being done to them, but with Connor? The kid was going to be forced to deal with his past, his mother, and classmate's pestering. He was dealing with so much already, and to ask him any question about his reasoning for his attempted suicide seemed … Cruel.

When a person chooses suicide, they're at their limit. They don't see another way out, they feel guilty about the pain they're going to cause after their departure, but the need for freedom is much bigger.

And thus asking Connor, someone who was certain they were going to be free in a few hours 'why?' And 'what happened to you?’ It seemed much crueler than the actions of his tormentors.

"I almost declared him dead, Leonard, he would've died had I taken him to the lab and not noticed it." He looked at her at that motion.

"I've seen you declare corpses dead seconds after being shot, no offense Helen, but that was a rookie mistake." She seemed offended.

"Excuse me-"

"No, listen, a rookie mistake you wouldn't make."

Helen looked down at her hands. True, she wasn't one to make that kind of mistake, even rookies rarely made that sort of mistake, they always had a Doctor beside them to make sure of that. She had Dr. Saroyan, an excellent medical examiner.

She had read about it of course; it was a recurrent joke in med school, professors would joke about accidentally declaring someone dead just to hear scratching from inside the casket. Dr. Saroyan herself told her a story about a personal experience. She was traumatized, to say the least. They're many reasons a body fails to record a pulse and thus the paramedic fails to register it.

"Leonard. You're a genius!"  
With that, she left the room to head to her lab. Leonard was left with more questions than answers.

________________________________________

"Va-Boss," Quentin corrected quickly, "You want me to sit in this room and watch you interrogate someone?"

Vanya nodded while gathering her things, the folder that Leonard sent her for a child abuse case he had been working on, the many complaints the father had filed that never made it to court, and lastly the security tapes from the hospital. Quentin wanted to go inside the room with her to ask some questions himself, yet his job (according to Vanya and not the TV) was to sit there and analyze the woman's actions and body language in regards to the questions Vanya was going to throw at her.

"Yes, what'd you expect? To go with me and to participate in the interrogation? To just sit there?" he nodded and she rolled her eyes. "You'll sit, just not in there with me."

_"Why can't I sit with you?"_

_Vanya had a big concert soon, she was going to play in a theater in about a week or so. In that week that stood between her and her concert, she'd been rereading her music sheets all over again. She'd also been pressing the calluses on her fingers with a broken string to mark the space between them. That meant she'd been all up on her music for over a month now._

_"I'm practicing Quentin, please leave me alone."_

_"Klaus is also going to your event, and he's playing with Ben and Diego! Please, Vanya!"_

_"Quentin! Klaus plays the piano! I'm not saying it's easy, I'm saying he doesn't require the same focus or stamina." Vanya rolled her eyes._

_"Vanya, come on! At least let me sit with you." He pouted, trying to plant himself beside her._

_"… You can sit, just not beside me."_

_"Alright fine. Jeez."_

Quentin sat with a pair of headphones over his ears while he listened to the noise inside the room. Vanya locked the door while she sat in front of the woman.

"So, Miss Abernathy." Vanya started. "We checked your record. You have over 17 child abuse charges hanging over your head, none of them made it to the court of course."

"My child lives in a good home, she has food, clothing, the internet, and attends an expensive school. I don't beat or starve her. She should be worshiping the ground I walk on." The woman rolled her eyes at the end of that statement.

"Your child has made it known multiple times that he doesn't feel like a girl," Vanya responded.

"Why wouldn't she? It was just a phase."

"We see Connor-"

"Lisa."

"... Connor, he has subcutaneous mastectomy scars. You must've not liked that."

Her face filled with rage, her whole body stiffened and her lips pursed tightly. Vanya saw her grip her skirt while breathing deep to dissipate the anger she felt towards that fact.

"Her idiot father allowed that for her sixteenth birthday." She huffed, "I plan to have her go for breast reconstruction when she's eighteen. She was a beauty. Lisa was the prettiest girl I've seen, even prettier than me."

"... I see."

"When she was younger, she won so many pageants! She was crowned first place in nationals too!"

"He must've been pretty talented."

"Of course she was! I'm her mother! I won as many as she did when I was her age."

"... Did Connor ever want to go to one of those pageants or did you force him?"

She once again had that 'you just offended me' expression. This time her face was even redder and her eyes were wide open. It was not the first time someone almost burst into the interrogation room. She'd seen someone faint before, this wasn't new.

"She loved them! But then her father took her fishing, ice skating, to concerts. She started liking more masculine clothes. So I divorced her father. He was ruining my perfect little girl!"

"You know, in 1965 there was a child who was born a male." Vanya started while closing the folder, "due to a fatty circumcision his penis was severely damaged. To avoid any trauma growing up, the family, following the advice of a doctor decided to raise him as a female… It later turned out that he wasn't comfortable in that role, and thus transitioned back to male."

"Of course he did! He was born one!"

"He never knew that; he was raised as a girl, dresses, long hair, makeup… Yet he never felt that way, he was repudiated with his own body, now imagine that… But with your child."

With that said, Vanya got up and left the interrogation room.

Quentin smiled involuntarily.

________________________________________

"This room smells good," Quentin said once they entered Conner's hospital room.

It was flooded with flowers, multiple colors, and arrangements. Though most of the flowers, from what he could tell had a meaning. The bouquets were mostly those that expressed love, affection, and gentle feelings. But one of them caught his eyes. It was a combination of two distinct flowers.

Baby's breath.

It was a flower similar to that of a sakura blossom tree in the fashion of branches that held the petals, except this one held white, smaller petal. It was usually seen in weddings, baby christenings, or at funerals… it meant an undying love for someone that held pureness in its heart and that, by any means of time had separated from whoever gifted the flower, it also meant reconciliation and reconnection.

Now, the other flower the bouquet has was also meant as a forgiving gesture. Snapdragon was a beautiful being. Filled with small, red, and orange bulbs, it was filled with a meaning of strength, graciousness, and finally, fulfilled an apologetic gesture.

Whoever sent that bouquet was remorseful and wanted to make up, also, it had to be someone close, someone, who cared.

And most importantly, that person researched to prepare that bouquet.

"Boss," Quentin called over to Vanya, who held Fluffer by the collar as some kid was currently pulling at the dog's ears. She seemed fine, a bit bothered… But fine.

"Hold on a minute." She called while looking for the kid's parents or guardian.

Now, Quentin might've been a mathematician before, but he also had a psychology degree. He got bored easily and the course seemed useful in the long run (And it was also something Klaus talked him into.) Being Klaus's friend, the guy had talked enough to him to be able to read people, and Klaus was also able to recognize features of others on kids.

That kid was incredibly similar to Brandon.

"I'm so sorry Miss; he must've pestered your dog." Who just happened to grab the kid?

"No problem, kids are usually intrigued by her," Vanya hadn't recognized the boy just yet. Quentin grabbed the bouquet and approached Vanya.

"Boss, this is a cute bouquet isn't it?" He smiled while smelling it, "a lot more thought put into this than the others."

Brandon flushed immediately while he grabbed the little boy's hand, who wasn't having any of the older boy's shyness because as soon as he saw the bouquet he squealed and pulled at the boy's hand.

"Daddy! Daddy look! It's yours! That's the bouquet! Daddy!" When Brandon didn't react in any other way than his face rapidly reddening, the child continued. "Daddy! Daddy! Look! Daddy! It's for that cute boy you ramble about, isn't it?! Daddy! Daddy!"

Brandon got even more flustered (if that was possible) and both Quentin and Vanya got a surprise.

Daddy?

________________________________________

"So you're a father?"

Quentin was going to get used to this observation room. He wasn't even allowed a key to the other room. But he did have a kid to interview later at least which was something to look forward to.

"... You could say that, yes."

"... I do notice a resemblance between you and that kid, but not as noticeable as one would expect," Vanya said.

"... Ethan is my baby okay? He's mine."

"Interesting you would say. It's usually a mom who takes care of the child, especially in these cases."

"I'm… I'm a special case. Okay?"

"... Hmm… We dug up some information on you; you have a football scholarship." She read from her folder "quite a large scholarship."

"I don't get why I'm being questioned… All I did was give him some flowers-"

"Him?"

"Yeah, Connor's a boy."

"... He's Trans, all of your school knows. And they all treat him like a girl. Why do you treat him like a boy?"

"THAT'S NOT EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM!" Vanya had seen enough outbursts to stay seated and calm, yet this one managed to make her open her eyes a bit wider, "Sorry... I knew him, okay? Our moms enrolled us both in ballet, I was his partner. But he always asked for fewer feminine costumes… I was confused but eventually, he told me, and hey, I gotta respect that…"

"That still doesn't explain why you bully him so much" Vanya grabbed her folder and slid it toward him. Many pictures are taken from social media, beatings, bruises, status written by both of them.  
"If you took part in the harassment and he dies, I can charge you with second-degree involuntary manslaughter, a fine of 20,000 dollars, and up to ten years in prison. Start talking." Brandon gulped in a breath and looked at the ceiling while blinking repeatedly. Calming himself down.

"Ever tried to fit in? I…" he finally looked down, "I liked him, and he was a nice guy to be around. But then, everyone started picking on him when his hair got short, his skirts were gone, hoodies… I didn't want to be that friend who got bullied by pure association with him." Brandon ran a hand through his hair. "Ethan loved him; he was kind to Ethan; it would be stupid for me to… Treat him bad because I disliked him."

Vanya tilted her head.

"Peer pressure?"

"Yeah… You could say that."

________________________________________

"It's good to see you back in your lab Helen," Leonard greeted while handing her a cup of coffee, "any news?"

"Actually yes!" She said excitedly. "So you see, what you told me got me thinking. I'm not one to make rookie mistakes, not even my interns make them when I have 'em here. So… What causes a doctor to determine someone as 'dead'?" She asked him.

"A lack of pulse?"

"Exactly! But you see, there are many ways a body can experience lack of pulse, one of them is a cardiac arrest."

"... He's sixteen. There’s no way he experienced a heart attack." Leonard countered.

"No, there is! See, this kid, well... Lisa's file says she's a healthy young gi-"

"He." Leonard corrected.

"Wait a minute okay? I'm getting to that. Lisa's file says everything is okay… While Connor's file says he had the suspicion of anorexia and was severely underweight, and was experiencing high-stress levels. His father took him regularly to therapy, he got checkups with registered doctors. While with Lisa's file I can't find a single doctor that's legally verified."

"... So what you're saying…"

"With a body as weak as Connor's, probably due to an unhealthy diet imposed by the mother and the stress caused by bullying, any sort of shove would've triggered cardiac arrest."

"Yeah but, Helen, this kid was hanged, he would've died quicker with that and with the heart attack." He reasoned while reading the medical reports.

"Not necessarily. You see, I said in my original report that he was extremely cold, maybe due to the weather and a cold shower, but low body temperatures can cause the cells to need less oxygen, and while yes, maybe a severe heart attack didn't occur, but if it did, it must've been enough to scare whoever was assaulting him."

"... Yeah, that still doesn't tell me how the hell he ended up hanging from that basketball Hoop."

"Hey? You want me to do your job as well?" Helen rolled her eyes. "If I were you, I'd question the potato sack." That was a joke; Leonard knew it was a joke and that it was a reference for something. He just had a fish's memory right now apparently because he couldn't remember where the hell that phrase could've come from.

".... I don't get it."

"That Brandon kid, the one boss threw over her shoulder. Him."

"Will do. Thanks, Helen"  
________________________________________

"Why exactly do we want to check out Karen's house?" Quentin asked, opening the front door.

"Because you're a profiler. So" she pointed to the inside. "Profile."

Quentin rolled his eyes, yet proceeded to check everything out. The house seemed very, feminine. No 'masculine' colors, excessive pink and pastels. Many pictures of which they assumed were Connor as a kid partaking in all the pageants mommy dearest took him to. Yet, the house seemed cold.

"I need to see his room."

"Go ahead."

Up the stairs, the middle room had 'Lisa' written on the door. Opening it, he saw everything he needed to see.

It was a typical teenage girl's room, where pink, purple, and cyan were everywhere in sight. His clothes were probably the only ones that he was allowed to choose, he had a very nice selection of jackets, boots, jeans… Upon further investigation, he saw a Nintendo switch on the ground connected to the TV, as well as multiple games. One loaded.

Breath of the Wild.

Nice taste.

His calendar was marked with several dates. One held a big, blue circle, with Jerry's name inside and a few smiley faces. His diary was also open, he was writing about his future plans, college, moving in with his dad, a new diet for weight gain, doctor appointments, he was excited for collecting almost half of the memories in Breath of the Wild…

This kid didn't want to kill himself.

He wasn't even depressed…

"VANYA!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HOPED YOU LIKED IT! 
> 
> CONNOR DESERVES A HUG! 
> 
> Also, I didn't write this chappie because of Elliott, but I do support him with all my heart. Let's be a good fandom and respect him, only himself knows how much he's had to go through in life. 
> 
> That being said. 
> 
> Love you all. ❤


End file.
